Funding shortages loom amid rise in S. Sudan displacement

The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) on Friday warned of funding shortages as thousands of refugees are fleeing South Sudan, straining the surrounding countries.

UNHCR said that only 122 million U.S. dollars had been received, representing 20 percent of the 608.8 million dollars needed by the agency for refugees in South Sudan and the six countries of asylum, and that part of its activities had been suspended.

"Worst affected are remote regions in Uganda, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic where UNHCR had no previous presence," UNHCR said in a statement received in South Sudan's capital Juba.

"Continuing funding shortages will further disadvantage women, children and men who need urgent sustained help to overcome the trauma of forced displacement and get on the path to recovery, self-reliance and human dignity," it added.

UNHCR said the inability to provide food, shelter, basic services, psychosocial assistance, education and livelihood opportunities were prolonging vulnerabilities.

UNHCR appealed to the international community to support countries of asylum to protect and assist South Sudanese refugees.

"Already there are some 930,000 refugees in the region, and more are arriving daily. UNHCR is extremely worried that even as the refugee population grows, funds to meet basic needs are becoming exhausted," it said.

UNHCR said the outbreak of renewed violence in Juba in early July appeared to have tipped the scales against an imminent political solution to the South Sudan conflict.

"There are numerous reports of sporadic armed clashes, human rights violations including sexual and gender-based violence by armed groups, and worsening food insecurity -- inflicting immense suffering," it said.

The security conditions in South Sudan are unpredictable with clashes recently reported in parts of the country between government troops and forces loyal to sacked vice president and former rebel leader, Riek Machar.

The two sides had fought a civil war which broke out in December 2013 and left tens of thousands dead. A peace deal signed last August led to the formation of a national unity government in April but failed to quell the fresh fighting.

According to UNHCR, Uganda and Sudan have received an estimated 110,000 and 100,000 new arrivals respectively in 2016, together accounting for more than 90 percent of the new arrivals in the region this year.

Most of those fleeing to Sudan arrived in the first six months of the year, driven by fighting in previously stable areas in Western Bahr al Ghazal state, as well as the worsening food security.

In addition to the refugee numbers, there are 1.61 million people who are displaced within South Sudan, UNHCR said. Endit