Uganda begins emergency food handouts after 19 die from hunger

Government move follows months of drought and crop failures in Karamoja, with 1.5m people facing malnutrition

The Famine Early Warning Systems Network (Fews Net), a global mapping network designed to raise the alert on food security, reported the situation had deteriorated to a crisis across Karamoja. Picture: Dirole Lotsima Dieudonne.

Uganda has launched emergency food relief distribution after at least 19 deaths from hunger were reported in an area of prolonged drought in the east of the country.

A crisis has been building in the Karamoja region of Uganda as crops have failed without the season’s expected rains, leaving the region’s 1.5 million people facing acute food shortages and rising malnutrition.