Uganda’s refugee camps in West Nile and elsewhere are bustling.
The United Nations High Commission for Refugees says the number of South Sudanese refugees hosted in Uganda now stands at one million.
In a statement, UNHCR, notes 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 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.
Uganda, which has long been a landing spot for South Sudanese refugees, is working to expand reception centres and camps near the border.
But some sites are already hosting five times the number of people they were designed accommodate.
