WFP Slapped With Lawsuit Over 4 deaths, 296 Illnesses Linked To Food Aid In Uganda

Last week, an anti-counterfeit body petitioned a Ugandan court to declare that the supply of contaminated food by World Food Programme (WFP) to the people of Karamoja, a Ugandan  district, violated international standards.

In March this year,  Uganda’s Ministry of Health reported that at least 262 people in the northern Karamoja region had shown mental confusion, vomiting, headaches, high fever and abdominal pain since March 12 after eating Super Cereal.

The Anti-Counterfeit Network, a Ugandan coalition of civil society groups, filed a lawsuit in the Kampala High Court on 14 June accusing the WFP of acting negligently in supplying the allegedly contaminated product, known as “Super Cereal”.

A declaration that the failure by the health minister and government to cause the reprimand, sanction or prosecution of the first respondent (WFP), its agents or servants for the acts and omissions is an act of connivance against the public which is illegal, irrational and procedurally irregular, the petition reads in part.

Karamoja, a region in norteastern Uganda, has been severely affected by drought and rising temperatures which have contributed to widespread food insecurity, with more than 500,000 people affected by food shortages and malnutrition rates of around 10 percent.

Super Cereal is provided by the Ugandan government’s Maternal Child Health and Nutrition to more than 40,000 children and pregnant and nursing women in the region, according to monthly WFP reports.

In March, the WFP distributed a total of 78.42 metric tonnes of Super Cereal in Karamoja. This was being distributed to 252 locations in Karamoja, including sites across 13 districts that host refugees. This was before WFP moved to halt distribution on 15 March.
The Super Cereal, produced by Turkey’s Demirpolat Group, had been sent to operations in 24 countries before the WFP halted further worldwide shipments on 9 April.

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