$670 needed for South Sudan refugees in Uganda: UN
September 21, 2017 (KAMPALA) – More than $670 is urgently need if Uganda is to properly addresses the plights of more than one million South Sudanese refugees currently living in the country, the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) said.
“61% of population [of refugees] are children under 18,” says the report.
The South Sudan refugees in Uganda situation report adds that 51% of all South Sudan refugees are in Uganda, making Uganda one of the biggest host of refugees on the continent and the world.
According to to the UN refugee agency, Uganda received 335, 300 refugees between the period of 1 January and 10 September, this year.
In a statement issued last month, UNHCR, said that an average of more than 1,800 South Sudanese refugees a day have fled to Uganda in the past year. The influx has become the fastest growing refugee crisis in the world. More than 85 per cent of South Sudanese refugees in Uganda are women and children under the age of 18.
However, it said that despite, hosting a solidarity summit in Uganda in June, the agency had received just 21 per cent of the US$674 million needed to support the South Sudanese refugees in Uganda for 2017.
In addition to the million refugees now hosted by Uganda, a million or even more South Sudanese refugees are being hosted by Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Central African Republic.
“With the crisis currently showing no end in sight, decisive action is required and there is an urgent need for pledges of support to be fulfilled,” the statement added.
The South Sudanese conflict, in its fourth year, has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced more than two million into South Sudan’s neighbouring nations.
(ST)