Refugees from South Sudan rest at a refugee camp in Sudan's White Nile state near the border with South Sudan on May 17, 2017. (Xinhua/Mohamed Babiker)

KAMPALA, June 23 (Xinhua) -- An international refugee summit opened in Uganda on Friday with the aim of raising 8 billion U.S. dollars to cater for refugees in the east African country over the next four years.

The meeting dubbed 'Solidarity Summit' is co-hosted by Uganda and the UN.

In attendance is the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, regional leaders, UN relief agencies among others.

Uganda is now Africa's leading refugee-hosting country, having jumped from the eighth largest refugee-hosting country in the world in mid-2016 to the third largest today, after Turkey and Pakistan.

UN figures show that the country hosts more than 1.2 million refugees from neighboring countries like South Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, and Rwanda, among others. Of these, more than 900,000 are from South Sudan.

Relief agencies say such numbers are placing excessive pressure on state and host community resources, especially social services like health and education.

Experts warn that Uganda's refugee policy, which gives refugees land and allows them to work may be undermined because of the huge influx of refugees and limited funding.

The UN and Uganda are hoping to appeal to the international community to raise the required resources to avoid the refugee crisis from escalating.