Uganda begins emergency food handouts after 19 die from hunger

Food distribution under way at Potome primary school, Lodiko, watched by Sam Engola, Uganda’s minister for disaster preparedness. Photograph: Prime minister's office, Uganda

Uganda has launched emergency food relief distribution after at least 19 deaths from hunger were reported in an area of prolonged drought in the east of the country.

A crisis has been building in the Karamoja region of Uganda as crops have failed without the season’s expected rains, leaving the region’s 1.5 million people facing acute food shortages and rising malnutrition.