UNITED NATIONS CONFIRMS 39 DEAD IN ATTACK ON CAMP NEAR GULU, UGANDA

UNITED NATIONS CONFIRMS 39 DEAD IN ATTACK ON CAMP NEAR GULU, UGANDA

GENEVA/NEW YORK, 18 May (OCHA) –- Thirty-nine people have been confirmed dead and 17 injured after an attack by the rebel group known as the Lord's Resistance Army on the Pagak camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in northern Uganda.

Yesterday, a mission comprising representatives of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Food Programme (WFP), together with partners from
non-governmental organizations (NGOs), went to the camp some 24 kilometres from Gulu and saw that 544 huts had been burned.  A third of the camp's total population of about 11,000 people has left to nearby camps and Gulu town.  The United Nations country team in Uganda has condemned this appalling atrocity, which follows similar attacks against civilians of Barlonyo on 21 February and Odek on 29 April 2004.  The United Nations is monitoring the situation and will go back to the site in the coming days.

The situation in northern Uganda has deteriorated sharply since summer 2002.  The number of persons internally displaced by fighting, and in dire need of humanitarian assistance and protection, has increased from 800,000 to over
1.6 million.  Children and women, in particular, have suffered enormously.  The Lord's Resistance Army had abducted more than 10,000 children since June 2002, the highest number since the insurgency began.  All children are at risk of being abducted, forced to fight and commit atrocities, and subjected to sexual violence and sexual slavery.  To escape this fate, tens of thousands of children – “night commuters” -- leave their homes each evening, seeking protection in towns.  In Kitgum and Gulu and Kalongo, there are 50,000 night commuters.

The United Nations has launched a Consolidated Inter-Agency Appeal for
$109 million to meet the humanitarian needs of vulnerable populations in 2004.  With the year nearly half over, only some $22 million, just 20 per cent of the funds required have been donated.  The WFP foresees a serious pipeline problem by the end of June unless funds are made available.

Despite the dramatic increase in needs, it remains extremely difficult to deliver humanitarian aid outside the main northern and eastern towns without the use of military escorts.  The escorts accompany food convoys to camps for displaced persons in northern Uganda.  Because of the fragile security situation, it has been difficult to maintain a humanitarian presence in these areas, meaning there is no sustainable assistance for health, education or other basic services.

For further information, please call:  Brian Grogan, OCHA New York, tel: 
212-963-1143; Elizabeth Byrs, OCHA Geneva, tel: 41 22 917 2653, mobile:
41(0) 79 473 4570.

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