UN allocates emergency funds to fight hunger in NE Uganda

UNITED NATIONS, June 7 (Xinhua) -- The UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) has allocated 4 million U.S. dollars to fight hunger in Uganda's drought-hit northeastern Karamoja region, UN humanitarians said on Tuesday.

"The poor production of food and livestock there has caused hunger to increase over the last two years," said the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

More than 518,000 men, women and children in Karamoja, or more than 40 percent of the region's population, are believed to be at high levels of acute food insecurity, including some 90,000 people facing emergency levels of food insecurity, the office said.

Poor diets and disease have also led to a rise in acute malnutrition. More than 90,000 children and nearly 9,500 pregnant or lactating women are acutely malnourished and need treatment, OCHA said.

"This allocation from CERF will allow us and our partners to support nearly 300,000 people impacted by drought with food and nutrition, water, health care, child protection, and other assistance," the office said.

The Karamoja region is on the border with Kenya, one of northeast Africa's three hardest-hit drought countries. Portions of Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia suffer food insecurity from a fourth dry rainy season.