KARAMOJA, Uganda — Angelina Nakiru, a 21-year-old mother of two in Rupa, near Moroto town, spends her days crushed between survival and despair. She works at a small-scale gold grinding mill, inhaling dust and hoping for a few coins to buy a cup of maize and beans to feed her children.
“The work is dusty and exhausting, but it is the only way I can earn money to buy a cup of maize and beans to feed the children,” Nakiru told reporters. “If I don’t, the children will sleep hungry. Other days when I fail to get the meagre income from the mill, we go to bed on empty stomachs. The situation is terrible. People are starving and dying due to hunger.”
Nakiru’s story is the lived reality of 1.5 million people across Uganda’s semi-arid Karamoja sub-region, where a prolonged drought has pushed communities to the brink of catastrophe. At least 19 people have already died from hunger, with children and the elderly among the worst affected. Yet the crisis unfolding today is not merely a failure of rainfall — it is also a failure of foresight, worsened by a dramatic withdrawal of international aid that has left Uganda’s government scrambling to fill a void it was never prepared to occupy alone.
Karamoja is no stranger to hunger. The region’s unimodal rainfall pattern delivers just one long rainy season from April to September, making it uniquely vulnerable to climate shocks. This year, the rains that should have arrived in April never came. Farmers who planted maize, sorghum, and soybeans watched their crops wither in the fields, with crop losses ranging from 50 to 70 percent across most areas. The Kobebe Dam, one of Karamoja’s largest man-made reservoirs, has run dry, leaving thousands of pastoralists from Uganda and neighbouring Kenya scrambling for water.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis for June 2026 paints a grim picture: approximately 473,000 people about 32 percent of Karamoja’s population — are currently experiencing crisis-level hunger or worse (IPC Phase 3 and above). Of these, around 41,000 people are facing Emergency (IPC Phase 4) conditions. All nine districts of Karamoja are affected, with Kaabong, Kotido, Karenga, Moroto, and Nabilatuk among the hardest-hit, where up to 45 percent of residents face acute food shortages. A nutrition report published in June found that nearly half of the population in Kaabong and Kotido districts is in a crisis situation.
Health facilities across the region report treating hundreds of children for severe malnutrition. United Nations agencies warn that hundreds of thousands of children and pregnant or breastfeeding women across Uganda require treatment for acute malnutrition, with Karamoja remaining among the country’s most vulnerable regions.
The current crisis follows significant funding cuts from international donors, most notably from USAID, which previously had an annual budget of approximately $42.8 billion. The World Food Programme (WFP) has been forced to scale back dramatically, cutting access for over 1 million people and reducing rations for 663,000 others.
In February 2026, WFP announced it would end secondary school feeding programs in Karamoja, affecting 30 secondary schools and six tertiary institutions, leaving thousands of learners vulnerable in a region where food insecurity is a daily reality. The WFP reported in late March that current funding would be insufficient to fully address expected needs through 2026, citing a shortfall of $47 million.
Agnes Kirabo, executive director of Uganda’s Food Rights Alliance (FRA), said the government was taking the lead on distribution as a necessity as much as a policy choice, as the landscape of humanitarian aid had changed dramatically. “Following significant funding cuts … agencies such as the World Food Programme have been forced to drastically scale [back],” she noted.
The irony is stark: Uganda is a surplus crop-producing country and a key regional food supplier. Yet its own citizens in Karamoja are starving.
In response to the crisis, the Ugandan government has launched its first large-scale emergency food relief operation organised without the backing of major international agencies. Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja flagged off a convoy of trucks carrying 9.4 million kilograms of maize flour and beans — enough to reach 313,987 households across 480 parishes in Karamoja’s nine districts. The operation is being coordinated by the Office of the Prime Minister in partnership with the National Enterprise Corporation (NEC) , the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) , the Uganda Prisons Service, and local governments.
The relief, funded by a 45 billion shilling (£9 million / $12.2 million) emergency allocation approved by parliament, will provide each household with 20 kilograms of maize flour (posho) and 10 kilograms of beans. Minister for Disaster Preparedness Sam Engola launched the distribution at a primary school in Lodiko sub-county, Kaabong district, vowing: “The president does not want to hear of anyone in Karamoja dying of hunger. I am here to supervise the distribution of this food to the end. I will ensure that everyone receives food. No one will be left behind.”
Yet even as the trucks roll in, concerns about the adequacy of the response are already surfacing. In Moroto District, Vice Chairperson Stephane Adupa Namer warned that the planned food ration may only provide short-term relief because of the large family sizes common in Karamoja. “The planned quantity cannot last a week because of the large size of households in Karamoja. Some men have four or more wives and many dependants. In such cases, the food may last only three days,” she said. In Nawanatau Village, 75-year-old Lomongin Lomer, who cares for a household of 20 people, said the government’s ration would be exhausted within days.
Prime Minister Nabbanja has warned against misuse of relief supplies: “Every bag of relief food supplied must be properly received, documented, and distributed in accordance with the approved guidelines. There will be no tolerance for diversion, theft, or misuse of relief supplies. Anyone found culpable will be dealt with in accordance with the law.”
A Recurring Tragedy — and the Questions It Raises
The current crisis echoes a devastating hunger emergency in 2022, when more than 2,200 people died of starvation and related illnesses in north-east Uganda, according to a report by the Uganda Human Rights Commission. That disaster was met with disbelief and outrage when the then-foreign minister Henry Okello Oryem called those who had died of hunger “idiots,” arguing that Uganda had favourable climate and fertile land so people should be able to grow food for themselves.
The recurrence of such crises raises uncomfortable questions:
1. Why does Karamoja remain consistently food-insecure despite repeated warnings?
Karamoja is consistently among the most food-insecure regions in Uganda. Year-round access to food is a consistent historical concern, driven by the area’s semi-arid climate, lower agricultural potential, seasonal livestock migrations that limit access to milk and meat, and increasingly frequent cattle raids. Experts attribute the region’s recurring food insecurity to a combination of climate crisis shocks, environmental degradation such as deforestation and overgrazing, poverty, and low agricultural productivity.
2. Is Uganda’s government equipped to replace the international aid it has lost?
The current emergency allocation of 45 billion shillings, while substantial, represents a fraction of what international agencies previously provided. The WFP alone faced a $47 million shortfall for 2026. The government’s reliance on military institutions (UPDF, NEC, Prisons) for distribution raises questions about long-term sustainability and civilian oversight.
3. What happens when the two-month relief period ends?
The current operation is explicitly short-term. The government has committed to implementing long-term remedial measures through the Karamoja Regional Development Plan. Minister for Karamoja John Baptist Lokii has promised to provide “drought-resistant, disease-resistant and early-maturing seeds ahead of the next planting season.” Yet similar promises have been made before. The gap between emergency response and sustainable development remains a persistent challenge.
4. What responsibility do international donors bear?
The withdrawal of USAID and WFP support has left a vacuum that Uganda’s government is struggling to fill. While donors have cited budgetary constraints, the humanitarian cost of these cuts is measured in human lives. The Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) has projected that 2.5 to 2.99 million people will need food assistance across Uganda between June 2026 and January 2027. Needs are expected to peak between September and November — precisely when the current relief operation may have exhausted its supplies.
The government has signaled its commitment to long-term solutions. The Karamoja Regional Development Plan aims to strengthen communities’ resilience to drought. The Office of the Prime Minister has pledged to continue monitoring the food security situation and coordinating both immediate humanitarian assistance and long-term resilience interventions, while engaging development partners.
Yet the scale of the challenge is immense. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) recently reported that Karamoja experienced a false start to the rainy season, forcing many farmers to replant and delaying harvests. Forecasts indicate an increased likelihood of below-average rainfall in northeastern Uganda, raising fears of further production losses. The prolonged dry conditions could also reduce household incomes, fuel conflicts over scarce water and pasture, and drive up food prices.
For Angelina Nakiru and the 1.5 million people of Karamoja, the immediate need is food. But the deeper need is for a future where hunger is not a recurring headline — where drought does not automatically mean death, where children do not go to bed hungry, and where a mother’s exhausting work at a gold-crushing mill is a choice, not a necessity.
The government’s emergency response is a necessary first step. But without sustained investment in resilience — drought-resistant crops, irrigation, early warning systems, and diversified livelihoods — Karamoja will continue to be a region where crisis is the norm and relief is the exception.
And the world, having pulled back its support, will be watching to see if Uganda can rise to meet the challenge alone.
