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UN food agency short of fund for refugees in Uganda

Xinhua, May 17, 2017 Adjust font size:

The World Food Program (WFP) is warning that the scale of the refugee crisis in Uganda is extraordinary, with average daily arrivals of over 2,000 people, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said here Wednesday.

"The country now hosts the largest refugee population in Africa -- over 1.2 million people, with 74 percent from South Sudan," Dujarric said at a daily news briefing here.

"The number of refugees WFP assists has more than doubled in last year, and the agency's operation is under considerable strain to meet their full food needs," he said.

WFP has a shortfall of 60 million U.S. dollars from May through October of this year, he said.

South Sudan has become the world's fastest growing refugee crisis with more than 1.8 million refugees having sought safety in Uganda, Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic.

The UN refugee agency said the current rate of people fleeing South Sudan had exceeded the humanitarian community's estimates. For example, the number of people fleeing to Sudan in March surpassed the expected figure for the entire year. Endit