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UN food relief stalled in Uganda after driver is killed in convoy ambush

UN food relief stalled in Uganda after driver is killed in convoy ambush

The United Nations agency that feeds hundreds of thousands of people in northeastern Uganda temporarily suspended operations in the region today after gunmen ambushed a convoy and killed a driver.

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) said that Richard Achuka, 41, was shot in the neck and shoulder and died yesterday when the gunmen attacked four of the agency’s trucks as they returned from delivering food to schools and other sites.

WFP condemns this vicious attack on a clearly marked WFP humanitarian convoy in the strongest terms and demands that the killers be pursued and brought to justice,” the agency’s Country Director, Tesema Negash, said after visiting the ambush site.

Mr. Negash said that 500,000 people affected from the current drought could suffer from the suspension of distributions, and promised to take action to ensure restoration of services as quickly as possible.

Mr. Achuka was driving the lead truck in the convoy, which was escorted by the Uganda People’s Defence Forces, WFP said. The attackers fled as the escorting soldiers and three other trucks arrived.

It was the first killing of a WFP staff member in Uganda since a driver was killed in ambush in Arua District in the Northwest in July 1998, the agency said.