EU pledges $95 million for refugee relief operations in Ugan

By CGTN Africa

The European Union pledged on Thursday 95 million US dollars to help fund relief operations for the hundreds of thousands of refugees that continue to stream into Uganda from neighboring South Sudan.

The announcement came a day before a crucial meeting in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, aimed at raising some two billion US dollars to plug funding shortages for the East African country’s surging refugee population.

The money will be directed towards funding refugee-related operations for 12 months beginning June.

Uganda currently hosts about 1.3 million refugees, around 950,000 of whom have arrived from war-torn South Sudan.

“Many refugees have fled conflict in South Sudan, seeking sanctuary from violence, hatred and hunger. Uganda’s example of helping vulnerable people cope with displacement is an example for the whole region and the world,” Christos Stylianides, the EU’s commissioner for humanitarian aid and crisis management, said in a statement.

South Sudan descended into war in December 2013 following president Salva Kiir’s allegations that his then-deputy Riek Machar was plotting to overthrow his government. Machar denied the allegations but then went on to mobilize a rebel force to fight the government.

A peace deal signed in 2015 has continually been violated by the warring factions.

The United Nations earlier this year ranked South Sudan as Africa’s biggest refugee crisis, and third worldwide after Syria and Afghanistan.