A Ugandan government minister is facing criticism after calling those who have died of hunger in his country “idiots”.

Many have deemed Henry Okello Oryem’s comments tone-deaf.

In 2022, more than 2,200 people died of starvation and related illnesses in north-east Uganda, a report by an official human rights body said.

But Mr Oryem argued that given the favourable climate and fertile land people should be able to grow food for themselves.

“It’s only an idiot, a real idiot, that can die of hunger in Uganda,” the state minister for foreign affairs told the NTV Uganda television channel.