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UNITED NATIONS, March 23 (Xinhua) -- The UN high commissioner for refugees, Filippo Grandi, and the government of Uganda on Thursday jointly appealed for urgent and massive support for the thousands of refugees from South Sudan, a UN spokesman said here Thursday.
Uganda currently hosts more than 800,000 South Sudanese refugees who fled brutal conflict, the deputy UN spokesman, Farhan Haq, said at a daily news briefing here.
Among them are some 572,000 new arrivals who have poured into Uganda in desperate need of safety and help since early July 2016, Haq said. "At the current arrival rate, that figure is expected surpass a million before mid-2017."
"This month alone, more than 2,800 refugees have arrived in Uganda from South Sudan daily," he said.
In late February, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) opened a new settlement area in northern Uganda to host thousands of refugees arriving from South Sudan.
South Sudan is now Africa's largest refugee crisis and the world's third largest, only behind Syria and Afghanistan.
Uganda has started to feel the pinch of hosting an influx of refugees amid acute funding pressures and says international support is urgently needed to help it accommodate the refugees.
