United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reports that South Sudan’s conflict has spawned one of the world’s biggest humanitarian crises, and is continuing to generate vast suffering and huge volumes of displacement.
The NGO says the biggest part of this outflow has been into Uganda, which has seen around 2,400 new arrivals every day since the beginning of October and over a quarter of a million new refugees since the re-eruption of violence in Juba on 7 July.
The United Nations and various humanitarian organisations in Uganda have launched an appeal for an end to the suffering in South Sudan.
UN says there are over 800,000 South Sudanese refugees are in Uganda, and there’s a severe shortfall of funds needed for basic food, water and healthcare assistance.
Over 85 per cent of the new arrivals are women and children and 65 per cent are children under 18. Over 1,300 unaccompanied children and 6,200 separated children have been registered.
Interviews show that many children continue to flee alone, either because their parents are dead or because they were abandoned by or got separated from their family members during their flight.
“Right now it costs about $12 million a month to provide life-saving food assistance to the refugees in Uganda and we will have difficulty meeting those requirements starting early next year.” Says Cheryl Harrison, Deputy Country Director, WFP Uganda, emphasizing that resources in northern Uganda are overstretched.
According to media sources, only just over one-third of the 251 million dollars in aid needed for 2016 has been received. This is creating significant gaps in humanitarian agencies’ capacity to provide basic services.
Aid agencies are urging donors to expedite their contributions to ensure they help South Sudanese – both internally displaced and those who’ve fled to neighbouring countries.
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