The ugly face of hunger in Teso

Written by Devapriyo Das

Sunday, 05 July 2009 17:28

Ejiun of Obule – Ajet is starving Ejuin K, 86, and his younger brother, Iwapale Gebirot, 80, sit outside their grass thatched hut in Obule-Ajet camp in Ngariam, Katakwi.They are dressed in rags, exposing stretched skin on their countable chest bones. For several days, these old men have not eaten food. They are surviving only on water. Yet despite their predicament, some central government officials say that there is no famine in Teso. But just how many deaths does it take to make a famine in Uganda? There is little doubt that there is a hunger crisis in Teso. This situation is evident at Soroti Regional Hospital, where severely malnourished and underweight children lie inert in the paediatric ward. Their brown, limp hair, bulging eyes and swollen faces indicate they suffer malnutrition. Others have marasmus, or under-nourishment, that causes their body weight to be significantly low for their age. Their mothers, who have accompanied them to hospital, are also malnourished. One emaciated child lies unconscious, his thighs thinner than an adult’s wrist, the skin on his head stretched tightly over his skull, the eyes sunk in hollows of starvation. Dr. Patricia Alaroker, the Hospital’s Consultant Paediatrician, said that more than half of the children are underweight, “tending to severe malnutrition.” The hospital used to get 15-20 malnourished children per month until June 2008, but the numbers have risen to 30 per month since January 2009. These children are just a tip of the iceberg: rural parents almost never bring a malnourished child for treatment, and usually only come to treat malaria, pneumonia or diarrhoea. EATING WEEDS Joseph Kony’s LRA insurgency, the cattle-rustling by Karimojong warriors, chronic drought and floods, have all contributed to persistent food insecurity in Teso over the last decade. As a result, limited acreage has been prepared for agriculture, livestock decimated, food reserves depleted and people weakened by disease. Food shortage is blatant in Acanga village, 50km from Soroti, in Achor Sub-county, Amuria District. Here, Christine Akol, an expectant mother of eight, is sorting and drying a tangled mass of green, swamp weeds bearing yellow flowers. These weeds have been the family’s only meal of the day, for weeks. Her maize, sorghum, groundnuts and beans have all withered because of drought. “It is very hard to collect emoros [the weeds] as they are few and hidden; and now, the worms are eating them too,” she said. NO AID Amuria LC-V Chairman, Julius Ochen, says a survey by the District Technical Team showed 24,000 households of Amuria’s population of 320,000 were already vulnerable to hunger as early as April 2009. That number has risen to over 35,000 today, and nine people are said to have died of hunger so far. “We are desperate completely,” says Filbert Ogoloi, a village elder. “We need fresh seeds here, because anything edible, including small, immature crops and seeds have been eaten. [But] any assistance sent remains at the sub-county; nothing comes to the villages.” On June 15, an elder in Acanga called Emanuel Opwanya, suffering from elephantiasis and penniless, simply starved to death in his hut. Unsurprisingly, the elderly are least likely to access food owing to poor mobility, but also unlikely to access treatment at government clinics. “We give them advice but not nutritional therapy,” says Dr. Bernard Odu, Medical Superintendent at Soroti Regional Hospital. This is a veritable death sentence for two brothers in Obule-Ajet camp, Orukurukio village, Ngariam Sub-county, on the extreme eastern edge of Katakwi District. Ejuin and Iwapale are dressed in rags, their skin stretched tight as a drum over their ribs. Disease and Karimojong raids led to the death of their wives, siblings and children. Ejuin himself bears the scars of a vicious beating he received years ago from raiders. Since their neighbours can no longer afford to feed them, and they are utterly destitute, they have gone hungry for days with only water to sustain them. Meanwhile, residents allege that hungry Karimojong have started raiding again, their latest incursion taking place on June 30. Obule-Ajet has experienced irregular or extreme weather since 2003. “This year,” Camp Vice-Chairman Ronald Oluka says, “we tried to plant cassava and sorghum but the crops died because of too much sun.” Now they are forced to buy cassava and malakwang, a local green vegetable from Katakwi town market. They obtain money for food by making and selling charcoal. “Sometimes we just take malakwang and sleep, but when we are tired of it, we add these dry mushrooms,” he adds, fingering a tub of withered fungi. As with Acanga camp, food distribution by the UN World Food Programme (WFP) ceased earlier this year.NO CRISIS? Yet the government remains defiant. “I think we are in control of the situation,” says Prof. Tarsis Kabwegyere, Minister of Relief, Disaster Preparedness and Refugees. “This July is more or less covered […] The moment the rains start at the end of July, there will be food all over the place.” He added that “the Treasury released close to Shs 11billion” to supplement WFP food aid, and that food trucks are already making their way to the region. However, Kabwegyere acknowledged that it is difficult to ensure food reaches all affected communities. He also revealed that close to three million people in West Nile, Northern, North-eastern and Central Uganda have recently become food insecure owing to poor rainfall and over-reliance on seasonal crops. They represent 10% of the country’s population. But the minister believes “the situation is not extreme. We are not yet talking of a crisis.” That would be the case only “when there’s nothing, when you cannot supply, when people die en masse.”