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South Sudanese refugees straining humanitarian resources, UN refugee agency warns

Xinhua, August 13, 2016 Adjust font size:

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) warned that with refugees fleeing South Sudan in thousands, surrounding countries are strained under the weight of critically underfunded operations, a UN spokesman said here Friday.

There are already some 930,000 refugees in the region, and more are arriving daily, Farhan Haq, the deputy UN spokesman, said at a daily news briefing here.

"UNHCR is extremely worried that even as the refugee population grows, funds to meet basic needs are becoming exhausted."

"South Sudan is now the second largest refugee situation in Africa, and the fourth largest in the world but only one dollar out of five dollars needed to take care of each refugee is currently available," Haq said.

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, he said.

To cope with the arrivals, the government of Uganda has opened a new settlement in Yumbe, located in the north-west of the country, with a capacity for more than 100,000 individuals. But funds are urgently needed to speed the relocation of more than 45,000 refugees out of overstretched and severely congested reception and transit centers.

UNHCR appeals to the international community to support countries of asylum to protect and assist South Sudanese refugees, he said.

Another especially disturbing development is that the situation in previously stable areas is now deteriorating. Some 200,000 individuals have been fleeing new violence in previously stable areas such as Greater Equatoria and Greater Bahr-el-Ghazal.

The situation has been further compounded by a deteriorating South Sudanese economy. Inflation has risen an unprecedented 600 percent over the past year, causing a severe fall in the purchasing value of money, reports said.

South Sudan was founded in July 2011, after it gained independence from Sudan. The world's youngest country descended into conflict in December 2013 due to internal struggles between rival factions.

The recent fighting between rival forces -- the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) loyal to President Salva Kiir and the SPLA in Opposition backing First Vice-President Riek Machar -- erupted in and around Juba on July 7.

The new round of fighting in Juba left some 272 people dead, including 33 civilians. Endit