LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The number of South Sudanese who have fled their conflict-ridden homeland for a neighbouring country passed one million this week following renewed violence, the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) said on Friday. Most refugees are women and children, UNHCR spokesman Leo Dobbs told a press briefing in Geneva. Fighting erupted in South Sudan at the end of 2013 between soldiers loyal to President Salva Kiir and those backing his former deputy Riek Machar. Uganda, which hosts more than 370,000 South Sudanese, recorded more than 20,000 new arrivals over the past week alone, bringing the total number of refugees past the one million mark. "With this milestone, South Sudan joins Syria, Afghanistan and Somalia as countries which have produced more than a million refugees," said Dobbs.

Source: The Star September 16, 2016 17:03 UTC