Each week, the World Health Organization Health Action in Crises in Geneva produces information highlights on the health aspects of selected humanitarian crises. Drawing on the various WHO programmes, contributions cover activities from field and country offices and the support provided by WHO regional offices and Headquarters. The mandate of the WHO Departments specifically concerned with Emergency and Humanitarian Action in Crises is to increase the effectiveness of the WHO contribution to crisis preparedness and response, transition and recovery.

NORTHERN UGANDA

Two decades of armed conflict between the Uganda People's Defense Forces (UPDF) and the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) have perpetuated a complex humanitarian situation in northern Uganda's Acholi (Amuru, Gulu, Kitgum and Pader Districts) and Lango sub-regions (Apac, Amolatar, Dokolo, Lira and Oyam), marked by violence, poverty and the internal displacement of more than 1.5 million people. The right of access to essential services in health, nutrition, safe water, education, protection and shelter by the most vulnerable populations in the most disadvantaged

Summary

There is a growing consensus amongst researchers and policy makers that development and security are closely linked. Poverty and underdevelopment increase the risk of violent conflict and contribute to other forms of armed violence. This is clear in Africa where factors linked with underdevelopment such as weak state capacity, horizontal inequalities, and livelihood and resource pressures, contribute to conflict and insecurity. On the other side of the coin, conflict and armed violence contribute to poverty and undermine development, for instance

Executive Summary

A severe meningitis outbreak has spread in several areas in Southern Sudan. Humanitarian partners are supporting the Government in the response. But some activities, such as returns and certain food distribution operations, have had to be temporarily halted. The cessation of hostilities agreement between the Government of Uganda and the "Lord's Resistance Army" (LRA) expired on 28 February, raising concerns of new insecurity

Although no serious attacks on humanitarian workers have been signalled in February, security incidents were reported

By Francis Kwera

KAMPALA, March 30 (Reuters) - A British charity said on Friday it had information 66 children had been killed in an operation by Ugandan soldiers against cattle rustlers, but the Ugandan army denied the report.

Save the Children said it met 256 people whose accounts indicated the children were shot by troops, run over by armoured cars or crushed as animals stampeded during the February 12 raid in Kotido district, in remote northeastern Karamoja region.

A Ugandan military spokesman denied any children had died.

The charity said it had not found "specific

(Extract)

SRI LANKA: UN SAYS FOOD SERIOUS SHORTAGES IMMINENT

On 19 March, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) warned that without fresh funding its stocks to feed tens of thousands of internally displaced persons in eastern Sri Lanka would run out by the end of April.

The WFP estimated that around 155,000 civilians are now displaced in the restive eastern district of Batticaloa as the military and Tamil rebels, the LTTE, fight a new chapter in the island's two-decade civil war. Camps in the district are cramped and overflowing,

ICRC Press release No. 07/43

Geneva/Kampala (ICRC) - The ICRC is winding up a large-scale relief operation for some 560,000 displaced people living in 50 different camps in northern Uganda. The beneficiaries represent half the population displaced by the long-running armed conflict and living in Gulu, Amuru, Oyam, Kitgum and Pader districts.

Before the rainy season began, people received a package of seed and a kit of agricultural implements. "We hope that displaced people will be able to take a major step toward sustainable

FOREWORD

I am pleased to share with you this report on how UNICEF and the Government of Uganda partnered in 2006 - as we embarked upon our five-year Country Programme - to match the determination of Uganda's children to live and develop into healthy, educated and productive adults.

With a contribution of US$54.2 million, UNICEF, the Government of Uganda and partners were able to achieve concrete results for children and women in the areas of child survival, basic education, protection against violence and abuse, HIV/AIDS prevention and social policy