UN halts northeast Uganda aid after driver killed

KAMPALA, May 30 (Reuters) The UN World Food Programme (WFP) has temporarily suspended aid to half a million people in Uganda's drought-prone Karamoja region after gunmen killed one of its drivers in an ambush, WFP said today.

The 41-year-old was shot yesterday after delivering food to schools and other sites in the north-eastern region bordering Kenya and Sudan which has long been plagued by inter-ethnic violence and banditry by heavily armed cattle rustlers.

''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,'' WFP country director Tesema Negash said in a statement.

''WFP has no choice but to temporarily suspend our activities in Karamoja until security is improved.'' WFP did not say when it would resume work in the remote region, which has endured three droughts in the last six years.

Officials from across east Africa were meeting in southern Uganda today for a final day of talks seeking ways to disarm pastoralists and curb raids by nomadic warriors.

REUTERS SKB PM1347