Uganda Minister Says People Dying of Hunger Are Idiots
A Ugandan government minister is facing criticism after calling those who have died of hunger in his country idiots.
Many have deemed Henry Okello Oryem‘s comments tone-deaf.
A report by an official human rights body said in 2022, more than 2,200 people died of starvation and related illnesses in north-east Uganda.
But Mr. Oryem the state minister for foreign affairs told the NTV Uganda television channel that given Uganda’s favorable climate and fertile land, people should be able to grow food for themselves.
The minister’s comments have sparked outrage.
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Moses Aleper, a legislator for Chekwii county, which is part of the affected Karamoja region, told the BBC that Mr Oryem’s views were not right and unfortunate coming from a minister who knows what goes on in this country.
I’m from one of the most productive parts of Karamoja where there is adequate rain and we produce food. But in situations where weather fails us, the weather vagaries set in, we definitely fail to get food. And normally people definitely get famine and eventually hunger strikes.
Mr Aleper also said that hunger in the region is often caused by other issues beyond even human control, such as the way that the climate is changing.
Prominent Ugandan author and journalist Charles Onyango-Obbo also hit out at Mr Oryem, saying that the minister failed to grasp that hunger in a country like Uganda is a distribution/market problem.
Official data on the current food situation in Karamoja is unavailable, but it often experiences hunger during dry seasons due to the region’s semi-arid climatic conditions.
