‘God has remembered us’: Gomba celebrates lifeline rain after five-month dry spell

What the report says

Residents of Gomba District in central Uganda are welcoming the return of rain after nearly five months of unusually dry weather that damaged crops, weakened livestock and deepened food insecurity. According to Nile Post, the rainfall came on Saturday around midday and spread across several parts of the district, including Gomba East, where farmers and livestock keepers had been struggling through intense heat and failed harvests.

The article says the drought had left banana plantations dried out, coffee trees withered and roads and homes covered in dust. Livestock keepers reported pasture and water shortages, and some animals died while others became visibly weak. Households also felt the pressure in daily life, with some cutting back to one meal a day as crops failed and money for food ran short.

After the rain, residents said they were returning to their gardens to see whether cultivation could resume. They described the showers as a relief after months of praying for better weather and losing hope for the current farming season. The report places the hardship most sharply in Gomba, while noting that nearby districts such as Butambala and Mpigi had received occasional rainfall.

Residents are now asking the government for support, including coffee seedlings and other farm inputs, to help them recover from losses and restart production. The development matters because Gomba’s agriculture-based livelihoods depend heavily on timely rainfall, and the dry spell had threatened both incomes and food supplies.