EU offers $95m to fund Uganda's refugee response

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres (L) and Ugandan Prime Minister Ruhakana Rugunda (R) speak with refugees at the Imvepi refugee settlement, Arua District, northern Uganda, on June 22, 2017. PHOTO | MICHAEL O'HAGAN | AFP

The European Union has offered 85 million euros ($94.89 million) to help fund relief operations for hundreds of thousands of refugees flowing into Uganda from neighbouring South Sudan, it said in a statement on Thursday.

The announcement came ahead of meeting in Uganda's capital Kampala on Friday aimed at raising some $2 billion to plug funding shortages for the east African country's surging refugee population. The money would fund operations for 12 months from June.