Uganda thanks UN for 17 mln USD funding for emergency refugee response

KAMPALA, Dec. 12 (Xinhua) -- The Ugandan government on Tuesday thanked the United Nations for the allocation of 17 million U.S. dollars in funding for thousands of refugees in the east African country.

Musa Ecweru, Uganda's state minister for relief, refugees and disaster preparedness, told Xinhua in an interview that the funding, from the Central Emergency Relief Fund (CERF), will go a long way to meet the needs of the refugees in the country.

"We thank the UN for the support. We are grateful for the continued support from development partners and the UN towards refugees," Ecweru said.

"We call for more support from our partners and international community to help us to respond to the refugee situation," he said.

The 17 million dollars is part of the 100 million dollars announced by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to meet critical needs in under-funded emergencies in nine countries.

The other eight countries are the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, Cameroon, Mali, the Philippines, Eritrea, Haiti and Pakistan.

Uganda currently hosts about 1.5 million refugees, with over 1 million from the neighboring South Sudan, according to UN statistics. Enditem