USD 1 million needed daily for Sri Lanka's displacement camps, says World Vision

USD one million is required daily to provide food and water to almost 300,000 conflict survivors who are housed in a string of camp settlements in northern Sri Lanka, says World Vision.

"Funding is becoming a huge concern for aid agencies. Most have already used up a large chunk of their existing relief budgets responding to the crisis," said Suresh Bartlett, World Vision Lanka's National Director.

The cost of providing essential food and water is around USD 3.50 per person per day. But this does not take into account the provision of shelter, medical care, or children's schooling for those in the camps.

"The International Donor Community should not let the politics of giving, or not giving to Sri Lanka, affect the flow of funding that is urgently needed to assist tens of thousands of children and their families. It is imperative that we start to rebuild the lives of those who have been ravaged by conflict and to meet the specific needs of children in particular," said Bartlett. Read more ...

Sri Lanka: Forced to abandon a life's work

Before the fighting came, elderly farmer Ganeshan says his life was "fairly comfortable", happily working his 14-acre plot daily to feed his family.

But, as Sri Lanka's conflict grew ever closer to his farm in Puthukkudiyiruppu, he knew this happiness could not last. When his house was damaged by shellfire, it was time to go – forced to abandon his life's work.

"I am a farmer who never dreamt that I will have to depend on anybody for my food," the 62-year-old says. ""But there was no way we could have stayed there any longer." Read more ...

Sri Lanka: Vanni Emergency OCHA Situation Report No. 12

- On 13 May, the UN Security Council issued a press statement expressing its grave concern over the worsening humanitarian crisis in northern Sri Lanka and called for urgent action by all parties to ensure the safety of civilians.

- For the third consecutive day, a ferry chartered by the ICRC carrying 25 MT of food has been unable to evacuate patients because of continuous heavy fighting, according to the ICRC. Read more and download report ...

Sri Lanka: ICRC evacuates 495 from conflict zone and delivers 25 tonnes of food

In north-eastern Sri Lanka, 495 sick and injured patients and accompanying caregivers were evacuated by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) today. An ICRC-chartered ferry, the Green Ocean I, also delivered 25 metric tonnes of food provided by the World Food Programme, together with some medicines, for distribution among the thousands of civilians still trapped in a small area along the coast within the conflict zone.

"Heavy fighting is taking place near the medical assembly point at Mullavaikkal, which puts the lives of patients, medical workers and ICRC staff at great risk," said Jacques de Maio, the ICRC head of operations for South Asia, in Geneva. "This hampers medical evacuations of wounded civilians and their families." Read more ...

RCA carries out relief operations in Sri Lanka

The Red Crescent Authority of UAE (RCA) is carrying out humanitarian operations in the North Eastern Sri Lanka to alleviate the sufferings of people affected by the recent incidents there.

The RCA is distributing basic needs like food, medicine, blankets and other requirements among the families who had to flee their homes in the wake of the conflict. Read more ...

Sri Lanka: Vanni Emergency OCHA Situation Report No. 2

This situation report covers the period from 27 to 28 April 2009. The next report will be issued on or around 29 April.

I. Highlights

- 30 metric tons of food were ferried yesterday by the ICRC to the conflict zone.

- ICRC was planning to evacuate 481 people from the conflict zone today and additional evacuations are planned for Wednesday 29 and Thursday 30 April. Since February, ICRC has evacuated by ferry 10,000 civilians from the Vanni, 50% of whom were injured.

- The Competent Authority (CA), appointed by the Government to coordinate all relief efforts on behalf displaced civilians, has announced that the authorities will not send any more IDPs to Menik Farm zone 2 for the next ten days. Read more ...

Caritas pledges support for people of Sri Lanka

Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand has pledged NZ$50,000 to support civilian victims in Sri Lanka's civil war, as the government closes in on Tamil Tiger rebels in the north.

Caritas Director Mike Smith says the funds will contribute to a Caritas Internationalis appeal for NZ$4.35 million to help 100,000 people with food, water, medicines, shelter and trauma counselling.

Mr Smith says it's extremely distressing that the civil war has come to this point with hundreds of thousands of civilians lacking protection. "Our partner Caritas Sri Lanka reports that tens of thousands remain trapped in rebel-held territory, while more than 130,000 have fled to government-run camps where military forces are preoccupied with security and fears of rebel infiltration," says Mr Smith. Read more ...

WFP Ready For Sri Lankans Fleeing War Zone

WFP has pre-positioned food in the northern Vavuniya district of Sri Lanka to meet the needs of the tens of thousands of people who are fleeing the ‘safe zone’ along the north eastern coast of Mullaitivu. More ...

150,000 liberated and still more to come

By early afternoon today (April 22) 3630 more civilians who had been held hostage by the LTTE in the No Fire Zone entered the cleared areas in government territory, bringing the number of civilians who have escaped to freedom since April 20, to 83,300. More ...