Some 1.5 million refugees have fled fighting and famine in South Sudan to neighbouring countries, the UN refugee agency said on Thursday.

Charlie Yaxley, spokesman for the UNHCR in Uganda, said the organization estimated the total number of South Sudanese who have gone to neighbouring countries at 1.5 million, half in Uganda.

Yaxley further said there were thousands of new arrivals every day. He pointed out that the UNHCR had planned for 300,000 this year.

“We have already in the first two months of this year received 120, 00 new arrivals. If this rate of inflow continues actually that figure for 2017 will be far higher,” Yaxley said.

Photo: A young South Sudanese refugee cooks food at a camp in northern Uganda/ UNHCR