War-ravaged northern Uganda is to be reconstructed at a cost of US$600 million (3,1 mia. d. kr.), according to IRINnews.
The rehabilitation, announced by President Yoweri Museveni on 16 October, is intended to restore stability to the region after 20 years of warfare pitting the Ugandan government against the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a brutal insurgency that often targeted civilians for murder, maiming and abduction.
Hundreds of thousands of people were displaced and forced to live in crowded camps.
Most of the funding is expected to come from donors and a conference is being organised to secure funding commitments.
The Peace, Recovery and Development Plan (PRDP) for Northern Uganda will be implemented over the next three years. Some funds are, however, immediately available to help people who were maimed during the conflict.
The plan’s other immediate priority requirements include the provision of safe drinking water, rebuilding of schools, establishing health services and carrying out immunisation campaigns and HIV/AIDS awareness programmes.
Other services envisaged under the plan include micro-finance facilities and the provision of farming implements.
DROPPER MAD FRA LUFTEN
In a related development, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) for the first time in Uganda launched a food airdrop operation as part of an effort to reach tens of thousands of displaced people after heavy rains and severe flooding made aid delivery by road in northern and eastern regions of the country impossible.
An Antonov-12 cargo aircraft on 13 October started a month-long operation to drop food from the air to thousands of displaced people, according to a statement. Cereals, pulses, sugar and highly nutritious corn-soya blend were being delivered by air from stores in the northern town of Gulu.
Flooding has directly affected 300,000 people in northern and eastern Uganda, while tens of thousands of displaced in the north of the country are still unreachable as floodwaters have cut off roads.
