Uganda stricken with drought, famine

AllAfrica.com, via New Vision (Uganda): Following reports of famine countrywide, caused by the long drought, hailstones and floods, our reporters talked to the victims and the leaders about the situation and compiled these stories... When Ventorina Apiyo, 67, left Bobi internally displaced persons camp (IDP) and returned to her village last year, she planted simsim, beans, cassava and maize. Unfortunately, all the crops dried up due to prolonged drought. Today, Apio survives on one meal of boiled beans a day.

The former IDP now thinks life was better in the camp, where she was assured of relief food from humanitarian agencies. Apiyo, who was in her simsim garden, said she does casual work for businessmen dealing in produce in return for beans.

"Government should provide us with food for one more year because all the crops that we had grown dried up due drought," Apiyo, a resident of Kulu-Otit village in Bobi sub-county in Gulu district, said. "We have so far lost six children after they ate poisonous cassava."

The famine is threatening the lives of people in northern and eastern Uganda. The district agricultural officer, Jackson Lakor, said in many homes, people have only one meal a day. Agriculture officials said there is a 50% decline in the yield of crops this season due to prolonged drought…

Locator map of Uganda by Rei-artur, Wikimedia Commons, under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2