KAMPALA Uganda hopes to raise $2 billion in donations at a U.N. refugee summit next month to help fund relief operations for refugees flowing in from neighboring South Sudan, Prime Minister Ruhakana Rugunda said on Tuesday.The east African country hosts a total of 1.2 million refugees, of which almost 800,000 are South Sudanese who fled the world's youngest country since the outbreak of civil war. Rugunda said Uganda faced difficulties in coping with the influx, which ballooned recently since the latest wave of violence erupted in July. "The ... numbers are placing a huge strain on our already stressed ability to cater for food," he told a news conference. "We are hoping that ... we will be able to raise $2 billion from the summit," he said in Kampala, where the U.N.-hosted gathering is set to be held. The conflict in the oil-producing country began when President Salva Kiir fired his deputy Riek Machar in 2013, two years after the country won independence from neighboring Sudan.The fighting that followed split the country along ethnic lines, spurred hyperinflation and plunged parts of the nation into famine, creating Africa's biggest refugee crisis since the Rwandan genocide in 1994. The latest bout of warfare erupted in July, less than a year after both sides signing a peace pact in 2015.Rugunda said the money Kampala sought to raise from the summit would fund relief operations for the next twelve months from June.Uganda has won plaudits for its liberal refugee policy that maintains open borders and allocates land plots to individual refugee families. Kampala also grants refugees free movement and employment in the country, as well as some public services such as free education and healthcare.Rugunda said Uganda expected an additional 400,000 refugees to arrive in the country this year "because of the recurring cycles of insecurity and instability in the region." (This version of the story corrects prime minister's name to Rugunda in first, 3rd paras.) (Reporting by Elias Biryabarema; Editing by Aaron Maasho and Tom Heneghan)
Newer articles:
- Classroom becomes isolation ward as spectre of cholera haunts South Sudan - 10/05/2017 18:26
- Unifor donates to Oxfam Canada South Sudan famine relief - 10/05/2017 13:17
- South Sudan's ousted army chief says no retaliation in mind - 10/05/2017 05:36
- Kenya police: 4 men arrested in South Sudan going to join IS - 09/05/2017 17:37
- South Sudan says divisive army chief of staff Paul Malong removed - 09/05/2017 13:46
Older news items
- Gunmen attack South Sudan vice president's convoy, injuring bodyguards - 09/05/2017 09:23
- South Sudan Suspends National Dialogue Steering Committee - 08/05/2017 17:10
- New Rebel Group Threatens to Intensify South Sudan's Civil War - 08/05/2017 10:59
- South Sudan child refugees top one million: UN - 08/05/2017 01:49
- South Sudan famine could spread, report says - 07/05/2017 09:55
Latest news items (all categories):
- The Collo Kingdom Remains Underdeveloped: Five Hundred Years Later! - 03/02/2025 12:57
- Attack on South Sudan cattle camps kills 35 - 03/02/2025 12:46
- في صفقة مثيرة.. الإمارات تشتري نفط الجنوب في باطن الأرض لمدة 20 عامًا - 03/02/2025 12:42
- South Sudan: Can oil production save the economy? - 30/01/2025 19:27
- 20 oil workers and crew die in South Sudan plane crash - 30/01/2025 19:20
Random articles (all categories):
- S. Sudan Central Bank Backpedals on Currency Devaluation - 13/11/2013 19:08
- Machar encourages interactions between cultures and traditions in South Sudan - 16/09/2013 02:13
- UNHCR South Sudan 2024 Vacancy Announcements - 14/11/2023 12:24
- South Sudan raises oil output to 30,000 bpd - 12/09/2013 21:36
- South Sudan asks Nairobi court to release frozen funds - 01/05/2016 14:11
Popular articles:
- Who is the darkest person in the world, according to Guinness World Record? - 25/10/2022 02:34 - Read 67684 times
- No oil in troubled waters - 25/03/2014 15:02 - Read 22360 times
- School exam results in South Sudan show decline - 01/04/2012 17:58 - Read 21558 times
- Top 10 weakest currency exchange rates in Africa in 2023 - 19/07/2023 00:24 - Read 19210 times
- NDSU student from South Sudan receives scholarship - In-Forum - 29/09/2012 01:44 - Read 19199 times