Uganda's government has begun distributing emergency food aid after at least 19 people died from hunger in the Karamoja region (a semi-arid, drought-prone area in the country's northeast), where prolonged dry conditions since April have caused widespread crop failures affecting roughly 1.5 million people. Authorities plan to distribute 9,400 tonnes of food over the next two months, funded by a 45 billion shilling (approximately £9 million) parliamentary allocation — the first large-scale relief operation of its kind led by the Ugandan government, partly filling the gap left by sharp cuts to international aid, including the scaling back of World Food Programme assistance to over a million recipients in the country. Experts warn that while the distribution offers critical short-term relief, lasting solutions will require investment in water infrastructure, climate resilience, and structural reforms to address the root causes of what one civil society leader called fundamentally a governance crisis.