Food, water, health and sanitation facilities at several villages on the Uganda-Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) border are overstretched as civilians continue to pour into Uganda, the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, said on 31 October. The agency said the facilities were inadequate for the more than 6,500 people scattered in 12 villages along the border who are being hosted by the local communities.

Widespread corruption scandals by judges and magistrates and inappropriate political interference in the judicial systems are denying people their right to a fair and impartial trial, said High Court Judge Stella Arach in an interview yesterday. Arach elaborated that the lower courts are the most affected with many magistrates receiving bribes from litigants.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has condemned the attack and attempted abduction of journalist and media advocate Geoffrey Ssebagala by unidentified men in the Ugandan capital, Kampala on Monday and called on authorities to ensure his safety. "The attempted abduction of Ssebagala is no doubt orchestrated by those who feel threatened by his work as a journalist and advocate for other journalists," said Gabriel Baglo, Director of the IFJ Africa Office. "

Pamoja Africa is a loose Network (Meta Network) of National chapters (Networks), which in turn consist of Organizations that practice Reflect and other participatory methods in the conduct of their development work. Pamoja requires the services of a competent and visionary person to fill the position of a network facilitator

Ugandan rebel forces operating in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) killed six civilians in a deadly attack in the north-eastern village of Bangadi, the United Nations peacekeeping mission to the DRC has reported. The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) – a notorious militia believed responsible for killing over 200 people, including 159 children, in the DRC since mid-September – looted homes and communal facilities in Bangadi before setting them ablaze on Sunday morning, according to the mission (known as MONUC).

Uganda is to benefit from $100m from the European Commission (EC) to support developing countries in the growth of information communication technology (ICT). Prof. Venansius Baryamureeba, the Dean of the Faculty of Computing and Information Technology at Makerere University, on Monday said the funds would enable ICT students to carry out research in partnership with their counterparts in developed countries.

Wellspring Advisors seeks a consultant to undertake a mapping and analysis of Ugandan nongovernmental organizations focused on children’s rights and development. The consultant shall undertake a scoping study that will provide (1) an overview of the field of children’s rights in Uganda, with a focus on the role of nongovernmental organizations; (2) profiles of key Ugandan children’s rights organizations; and (3) grantmaking recommendations, including identification of potential funding strategies as well as specific organizations.

Wellspring Advisors seeks a Uganda-Based Consultant to provide critical support and oversight to its Uganda grants programs, which focus on pro-poor economic development, children’s rights and development, women’s rights, reproductive health and rights, and human rights. These wide-ranging portfolios cover such issues as land and property rights, violence against women, corporate social responsibility, disability rights, education, child protection, microfinance, smallholder agriculture, and small and medium enterprise development.

Hepatitis E is on the increase in Uganda's northern district of Pader, where it has claimed scores of lives and infected thousands in the past year, officials said. Since May, there have been 55 new infections and seven deaths in Pader, according to Angelo Luganya, a health official in Pader. "More cases are being received in health units in villages and there is need for urgent attention to check on the disease that is on the rise," he told IRIN.

Uganda has been elected to occupy a non-permanent seat of UN Security Council when delegates today cast their votes to the international body's powerful for 2009-10 term. Uganda, which was already assured of a seat from a unanimous regional backing has been joined by Japan, Turkey, Austria and Mexico.

Uganda is well endowed with natural resources and some 24 per cent is at present under forest cover. However, as in most Africa countries, Uganda’s forests are in decline. Mount Elgon forest was gazetted under the Forest Department from 1938. The status was changed to a National Park in 1993. Its management was transferred to the wildlife authorities. This report assesses impacts of the change in legal status on people's livelihood by means of a modified household economic model.

A community in eastern Uganda has banned the deeply rooted practice of female genital mutilation (FGM), an official has said. Kapchorwa district chairman Nelson Chelimo said it was "outmoded" and "not useful" for the community's women.

Should Uganda care about how the Internet is "governed"? Should we be on the same page with much of the world which has placed issues such as Openness, Security, Diversity and Access among those that need to be addressed by the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), and by respective national and regional bodies? Or should we have a set of other issues that should be a priority for Uganda?

The Ugandan government said Saturday it would strengthen anti-gay laws and step up police operations against homosexuals amid concern over the "mushrooming" number of gays and lesbians in the East African nation. "The state of moral health in our nation is challenging and we are concerned about the mushrooming of lesbianism and homosexuality," Ethics and Integrity Minister James Nsaba Buturo told a news conference.

With the start of the rainy season in Uganda, Livingstone Chinyenya should be tending to the farm which he says his family has lived on for four generations. Instead, the 64-year-old now lives as a squatter along the edge of the land where he was born and raised. He is one of more than 17,000 people who were evicted from their farms in Kayunga District, about 200km (124 miles) north-west of the capital, Kampala.

Fifteen-year-old Taboni's parents are in a bind. Their daughter has been raped by the commandant of the squalid internally-displaced persons camp they call home, and they do not know what to do. The implications of reporting the camp commandant, M R Otim, to the police could be grave. Like the 1.4 million other internally displaced persons, Taboni's parents have been impoverished, displaced, and disempowered by 20 years of conflict in northern Uganda. The camp commandant wields enormous power over their lives.

Disabled people in northern Uganda - many of whom were injured in the long conflict between the government and the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) - are calling on the government to provide a more targeted HIV response. Although there have been no rebel attacks in the region for over two years, the LRA planted landmines across the region and local people continue to find unexploded ordnance.

The Ministry of Health in conjunction with Marie Stopes International-Uganda (MSI) today launched a project to treat sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and reduce maternal and infant mortality among poor people in western and southern Uganda.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/396/climatec_change_uganda_l.j… in Uganda, whose contribution to global warming has been minuscule, are feeling the impacts of climate change first and worst. On the one hand there is more erratic rainfall in the March to June rainy season, bringing drought and reductions in crop yields and plant varieties; on the other hand, the rainfall, especially in the later rains towards the end of the year, is reported as coming in downpours that are more intense and destructive, bringing floods, landslides, and soil erosion.

Turmoil has erupted once again in Uganda as police clamp down on homosexuals in that country, which started this Monday 15 September. Two men have already been arrested and charged with ‘recruitment of homosexuals’, something which, according to Human Rights Watch, is not even a legislation in Uganda’s laws.