OTUKE– The government has delivered relief food to Otuke district for families affected by hunger, with reports claiming four hunger-related deaths have occurred in the last two months.
The relief food items which include 40 tonnes of posho and beans were delivered by the Office of Prime [OPM] to the district on August 12, 2022, and will be distributed soon.
The intervention by the government followed a series of concerns raised by the district leadership.
Besides the food aid from the government, the leaders headed by Lira-based businessman, Geoffrey Okwir Gunya have raised 25,000 kilogrammes of relief from the community in the Lango Sub-region to ease the hunger situation.
Four people have reportedly died of hunger in the district. Among them were Pilda Mary Okii, Sophia Akengo, Ogal Martin, and Joana Akello.
Both the chief administrative officer, Akileng Simon Peter, MP Paul Omara and the district chairperson, Francis Abole, raised alarm over the looming famine and subsequent deaths.
Writing to OPM, Omara said: “During the Parish Development Model [PDM] meeting in the district I was alerted by acute famine caused by prolonged drought during the first season. Therefore, this is to request your office to provide the people of Otuke with posho and beans to temporarily salvage the situation.”
Akileng also raised the same issue saying the district experienced unreliable rainfall punctuated with drought, floods, hailstorms and invasion of desert locusts which caused insufficient agricultural production.
Akileng in the letter to OPM requested: “The purpose of this letter is to inform you of this misfortune and more importantly to request for your immediate intervention to rescue the people of Otuke.”
Abola said they would immediately start distributing the relief food to hunger-stricken households.
https://thecooperator.news/hunger-in-otuke-leaders-to-collect-25000kg-of-relief-food/
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