The UN refugee agency on Thursday renewed its call to the international community for urgent additional support for South Sudan refugees in Uganda where the number has reached one million.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said in a statement that funding shortfall in Uganda is significantly impacting the abilities to deliver life-saving aid and key basic services.

"For Uganda, 674 million U.S. dollars is needed for South Sudanese refugees this year, but so far only a fifth of this amount (21 per cent) has been received," it said.

According to UNHCR, an average of 1,800 South Sudanese have been arriving in Uganda every day in the past year.

"In addition to the million there, a million or even more South Sudanese refugees are being hosted by Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Central African Republic," UNHCR said.

The UN agency said over 85 per cent of the refugees who have arrived in Uganda are women and children (below 18 years in age).

Recent arrivals continue to speak of barbaric violence, with armed groups reportedly burning down houses with civilians inside, people being killed in front of family members, sexual assaults of women and girls, and kidnapping of boys for forced conscription.

"With refugees still arriving in thousands, the amount of aid we are able to deliver is increasingly falling short," UNHCR said.

Since December 2013, when South Sudan's crisis erupted in Juba, more than two million South Sudanese have fled to neighboring countries, while another two million people are estimated to be internally displaced.

The UN refugee agency said some 883.5 million dollars is needed for the South Sudan situation across the East Africa region, but only 250 million dollars has been received.

(Xinhua News Agency, August 17, 2017)