Ebola cases in Uganda - DR Congo is battling second largest Ebola outbreak in history

From UK Government Department for International Development

Press Release - June 13, 2019

Statement from Harriett Baldwin on Ebola in Uganda

International Development Minister comments on the cases of Ebola in Uganda, near the border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo

LONDON, United Kingdom, June 13, 2019/ -- Responding to the confirmation of Ebola cases in Uganda, International Development Minister and Minister for Africa, Harriett Baldwin, said: "It is devastating to hear that cases of Ebola have now been confirmed in Uganda and tragically a child has lost their life". "The UK government has been the leading donor for Ebola preparedness in Uganda, training health workers on the ground and providing medical equipment to deal with this virus". "We stand ready to provide further support, but are also calling on the global community to step up. It is more important than ever that we work together to end this deadly outbreak". Background The Ugandan government has confirmed three cases of Ebola in the country. A five-year old boy has died as well as his 51-year old grandmother. The authorities have also identified eight contact cases. Since 2000, Uganda has had five Ebola outbreaks. In the last outbreak (2012), there were 24 reported cases and 17 deaths. Efforts to strengthen Uganda’s health system to be prepared for such outbreaks, including through UK support, means Uganda should be well placed to manage and respond to these new cases. UK aid has funded Uganda’s preparedness effort since the current Ebola outbreak began in August 2018. This has involved training for health workers, the provision of eight ambulances and sixty-three motorbikes to support the management of suspected cases, including in refugee settlements. As a leading donor, the UK is coordinating other international donors to support Government of Uganda’s plans to limit the possible spread of Ebola. This has included working closely with the EU, US and Ireland. UK experts have provided on the ground briefing to donor partners, using extensive knowledge of the disease to advise and guide the use of resources to prevent the spread of the disease. Public Health England (PHE) continues to assess that the risk to the UK from the outbreak is negligible-very low, even after the confirmed cases on the border between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). DRC is battling the second largest Ebola outbreak in history and the first-ever in a conflict zone, with more than 70 armed groups operating in the east of the country. The number of cases has surpassed 2,000 and the death toll has reached 1,390. Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Department for International Development (DFID). SOURCE: UK Government Department for International Development (DFID) https://www.africa-newsroom.com/press/statement-from-harriett-baldwin-on-ebola-in-uganda?lang=en

Former child soldiers from Uganda meet UK minister Stephen O’Brien

THE UK is backing rehabilitation and recovery in Northern Uganda, including training 150,000 young people who have missed the chance to go to school and helping 4,500 people return to their former homes.

In 2007, the University of California-Berkley’s Human Rights Centre reported that the LRA has abducted up to 38,000 children and 37,000 adults. More than 20,000 children were abducted, and in some cases, girls as young as nine years old were turned into sex slaves. More than 620,000 people still live in camps and at the height of the fighting, violence and disease killed 1,000 people a week.

Full story below.

Child soldiers meet UK minister
Source: SOS Children's Villages - www.soschildrensvillages.org
Author: Hayley Jarvis for SOS Children
Date: Friday, 19 November 2010 at 10:10 AM

Former child soldiers from Uganda this week shared their stories with Britain’s Minister for International Development, on a visit to the UK.

Thousands of Ugandan children were abducted from the north of the central African country by the Lord’s Resistance Army in the eighties and nineties and forced to fight as soldiers and terrorise the communities they grew up in. This violence at the same time as an HIV epidemic, paralysyed the region.

The UK is backing rehabilitation and recovery in Northern Uganda, including training 150,000 young people who have missed the chance to go to school and helping 4,500 people return to their former homes.

“Today I had the privilege to meet with several young Ugandans who have survived abduction and forced enslavement as child soldiers,” said Minister for International Development, Stephen O’Brien.

“These children and teenagers have endured unimaginable suffering and have shown great courage. That they have come to the UK to share their story of restoration shows a great strength and character – I believe these children, and many others like them, will grow to become upstanding citizens, heralding a new generation of hope for Uganda. They are an inspiration to us all as much as to their fellow citizens in Uganda.”

The children, supported by the charity, Watoto, thanked the MP for the UK’s continued involvement and interest in redeveloping Uganda. “Meeting the minister was great,” one of the Ugandan children told the Department for International Development. “It means a lot to me that he met with us to hear about our lives and make us feel welcome.”

Northern Uganda has been the centre of a brutal, 20-year insurgency by a cult-like rebel group that saw two million people uprooted from their homes and tens of thousands kidnapped, mutilated or killed.

Led by self-proclaimed mystic Joseph Kony, the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) is notorious for massacring ordinary people, slicing off the lips of survivors and kidnapping children for use as soldiers, porters and sex slaves. In 2007, the University of California-Berkley’s Human Rights Centre reported that the LRA has abducted up to 38,000 children and 37,000 adults. More than 20,000 children were abducted, and in some cases, girls as young as nine years old were turned into sex slaves. More than 620,000 people still live in camps and at the height of the fighting, violence and disease killed 1,000 people a week.

Business booms in northern Uganda as UK offers more funds

Report from The Observer, Uganda
By Moses Mugalu - Monday, 02 August 2010 at 11:13
Business booms in northern Uganda as UK offers more funds

The once war-torn northern Uganda has yet again received funds from the United Kingdom as efforts to develop the region intensify. DFID, the UK’s Department for International Development, has offered 16.6 million pounds to rebuild northern Uganda, and lay a strong foundation for business opportunities.

Jane Rintoul, the Head of DFID office in Uganda, estimated that the money will create 20,000 jobs, although such estimates tend to be conservative.

According to the memorandum of understanding between DFID and Government, 13 million pounds will be given as grants to boost viable investments in the region. Another one million pounds is to be spent on youth training programmes, while the Uganda Investment Authority will use the remaining two million pounds to carry out what they term an “economic recovery analysis.”

In trying to resuscitate the business potential of northern Uganda, government, together with DFID and other donors, is deepening a key market for beverage and palm oil companies, among others, which are part of the largest taxpayers.

Mukwano Group’s top officials were late last month in Lira and Oyam districts, dangling a Shs 20 billion bait to the farmers if they could double the production of sunflowers. Northern Uganda has virgin lands for the growing of sun flowers, which companies like Mukwano use to produce cooking oil.

Other firms making trips to northern Uganda include Nile Breweries Limited, which gets sorghum for the production of beer. British American Tobacco Limited also gets a lot of tobacco from the region.

Rintoul explained that grants will directly support the creation of new businesses and the expansion of existing enterprises in agricultural development and trade. This means foreign investors who plan to start doing business in northern Uganda qualify to apply for the DFID grants.

The Private Sector Foundation Uganda has a plan on how to take advantage of the funds. Gideon Badagawa, PSFU Executive Director, said they will organize farmers into cooperatives to access the grants. Officials say that under the cooperative initiative, thousands of small scale farmers will benefit from better market access, storage facilities for their produce as well as share knowledge on modern production methods.

Through their Business Uganda Development Scheme, a support programme, Badagawa says PSFU will also train farmers and help them add value to their produce before reaching the market. “We’ll use part of the grant to purchase equipment for farmers to add value to their produce, look for markets and impart skills so that farmers can sustain their incomes other than giving handouts,” Badagawa said.

While the funds from DFID are to directly benefit the people in northern Uganda, they have a wider implication beyond the country’s borders. Northern Uganda remains the easiest gateway into Southern Sudan, a place almost the size of Uganda with a mineral potential. Businesses, such as construction and retail services, are booming in Southern Sudan after security returned to the area in 2005 following a two-decade insurgence against its neighbour in the north.

Southern Sudan is also rich in oil, with companies from China already prospecting the black gold. With Ugandans scouting for foreign markets to sell their products, Southern Sudan presents a larger and more profitable market.

Rintoul said DFID has committed another 24 million pounds to construct residential houses for teachers and health workers in the region.

At least two million people who returned from the refugee camps in the region at the end of the war are engaged in agricultural activities. They mainly grow simsim, groundnuts, citrus fruits and cotton, whose products need value addition to attract better revenues.

mugalu@observer.ug

UK gov't job vacancy: A2 Statistics Adviser based within World Bank Nairobi Country Office, Kenya

Seen on twitter:

RT with correct link #DFIDjobs New vacancy: Statistics Adviser, Kenya. Apply now: http://ow.ly/12ExI Closing date: 27 Feb
6:29 AM Feb 5th from HootSuite
dfid_uk

Based within the World Bank Nairobi Country Office, you will support the KNBS reform process, the design/implementation of the next KNBS strategic plan, and lead the sector's donor co-ordination. The closing date for applications is 27 February 2010. LAST UPDATED: 28 JAN 2010. Click here for specific vacancy information [PDF - 88 KB] and apply online.