USA contributes 82mUSD to support hunger fight in Karamoja

By Our Reporter

15^th July 2022

The United States has provided more than 82million USD in new humanitarian assistance in Uganda through the U.S. Agency for International Development -USAID and the U.S. Department of State.

This additional funding, composed of 21 million USD in emergency food aid provided through USAID and over 61million USD in humanitarian assistance through the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration intended to help to meet the emergency needs of the people of Uganda, exacerbated by a global food crisis and regional conflict.

Part of USAID’s funding will support communities in the Karamoja Sub-Region, which is experiencing a harsh drought on the heels of damaging floods and landslides that took a crushing toll on many in the region.

More than half a million people in Karamoja are going hungry, and more than half of all children are severely malnourished and in need of urgent nutrition assistance in the worst-affected areas.

The support, to be channeled through the World Food Programme-WFP, will target households in sub-counties that are facing emergency levels of food insecurity and acute malnutrition with a goal of providing 1,508 metric tons of food commodities, composed of cereals, pulses and vegetable oil to cover three months of assistance.

It will also enable WFP to implement a supplementary feeding program to prevent malnutrition among 11,120 individuals in districts with critical levels of acute malnutrition, which include the Moroto, Kaabong and Amudat.  USAID will provide a total of 1,100 metric tons of Super Cereal Plus, a fortified blended food designed to prevent and treat malnutrition, to pregnant and lactating women, and children under five.

The announcement comes as a climax of a visit to Uganda by the Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration Julieta Valls Noyes.

While in Uganda, Assistant Secretary Noyes met with international organization partners and with Ugandan government officials to discuss the recent refugee influx from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and to coordinate humanitarian priorities for the over 1.5 million refugees hosted in Uganda.