Extreme Drought, Flooding Conditions Destroying Way Of Life Of Uganda's Pastoralists - AFP

[hatrack]

John Lochaon does not just survive on less than one dollar a day. He has streched out 15 dollars for nine months in a part of Uganda that climate change is plunging into famine. Lochaon has been unable to make a living because he lives in Karamoja, one of the driest and least developed areas in this east African country and one with a lack of infrastructure and basic services.

Drought forces the one million-plus people in this northeastern region bordering Kenya and Sudan to constantly move around searching for food. "I have two problems: old age and hunger," said the elderly Lochaon, who does not know his age. He sat on a log outside of his thatched-roof hut, his long, shrivelled limbs stretched over the dusty ground as lizards scurried by.

"Climate change is having a strong impact here - Karamoja is now in an emergency," said Alix Loriston, deputy director of the UN World Food Programme.

The semi-arid region has typically experienced drought since the 1960s, every five to 10 years. But since 2000, the phenomenon has become more frequent and more disastrous. Karamoja, which has no irrigation system, has suffered extreme drought for two years straight, preventing harvests altogether. Uganda's floods last autum left 400,000 homeless. Climate experts said they were also a consequence of global warming, and washed away what little crops existed.

EDIT

http://www.france24.com/en/20080403-extreme-weather-starving-ugandas-pastoralists