Tens of thousands of Muslim and Tamil people displaced by two weeks of violence in the eastern Trincomalee district remained crowded into makeshift refugee camps as Muttur town and parts of its environments remained sealed off by Sri Lankan troops Tuesday this week.
The Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO), the largest relief organisation in the Northeast, issued an urgent appeal to the international community.
TRO is currently caring for over 10,000 families displaced by the recent fighting and has been supplying food and water since August 1.
The TRO appealed to the Sri Lankan government, international monitors (SLMM) and the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) “to facilitate the transportation of relief to the affected areas.”
“Stockpiles of food are running low and TRO is appealing to the ICRC, Government of Sri Lanka, and the SLMM to facilitate the transportation of humanitarian relief to the displaced persons,” the organisation said.
About fifteen thousand Tamil people gathered in Killiveddy village along Muttur-Batticaloa road in government controlled area in the Muttur division Friday to seek safer places to escape from aerial strike and artillery fire now being conducted by the Sri Lankan armed forces.
18,000 Muslim and Sinhala refugees staying in 5 different schools in Kantalai, reports said.
The civilians have been staying in school buildings, temples and public buildings expecting transport facility to safer places with the facilitation of the International Committee of Red cross (ICRC).
Half of the men, women and children refugees were housed in schools and other buildings while the overflow huddled under trees and tents in Kantalai, AFP reported Saturday.
ICRC sources said that their officials were unable to reach Killiveddy to provide any assistance due to blockades in some places along the Kantalai-Allai road on Friday
A food convoy led by the ICRC Friday morning from Trincomalee town to Muttur to supply food to civilians was stopped at Kantalai by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) on Friday.
Registering so many people in such chaos is a slow process, but aid is beginning to get through, much from Muslim groups as well as international aid agencies that had previously been working on rebuilding after the 2004 tsunami, which also hit Mutur.
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) says it is ready to feed 25,000 people.
“The problem is that the people are still scattered,” Mahbub Alam, head of WFP operations in north and east Sri Lanka told Reuters. “We also have not yet got the green light to go into Mutur for security reasons.”
Aman Salih from Jamiah-e-Islami said they expected more displaced families to come in the next few days as Norwegian peace envoys try to pull Sri Lanka’s warring parties back from the brink of all-out war.
He warned that unless aid agencies were allowed to bring in supplies, the situation could turn into a “a major humanitarian crisis.”
The Red Cross, which has so far been unable to reach Muttur and deliver vital relief supplies, is pressing the government for security guarantees.
“Our main problem now is food and how to get more organized as this crisis grows,” Salih said, as he tries to keep track of the number of families being housed in a school compound in Kantalai.
“We expect more, a lot more to arrive in the coming days because they are afraid to go home. The government has not given enough protection to these people so that they can go home,” he said.
“We left our house, everything in Muttur,” a displaced Muslim resident, B. M. Aliar told AFP as he begged for left-over curry for his wife and three young children. “We did not want to be killed. But we may starve here if no additional supplies arrive soon.”
The Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO), the largest relief organisation in the Northeast, issued an urgent appeal to the international community.
TRO is currently caring for over 10,000 families displaced by the recent fighting and has been supplying food and water since August 1.
The TRO appealed to the Sri Lankan government, international monitors (SLMM) and the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) “to facilitate the transportation of relief to the affected areas.”
“Stockpiles of food are running low and TRO is appealing to the ICRC, Government of Sri Lanka, and the SLMM to facilitate the transportation of humanitarian relief to the displaced persons,” the organisation said.
About fifteen thousand Tamil people gathered in Killiveddy village along Muttur-Batticaloa road in government controlled area in the Muttur division Friday to seek safer places to escape from aerial strike and artillery fire now being conducted by the Sri Lankan armed forces.
18,000 Muslim and Sinhala refugees staying in 5 different schools in Kantalai, reports said.
The civilians have been staying in school buildings, temples and public buildings expecting transport facility to safer places with the facilitation of the International Committee of Red cross (ICRC).
Half of the men, women and children refugees were housed in schools and other buildings while the overflow huddled under trees and tents in Kantalai, AFP reported Saturday.
ICRC sources said that their officials were unable to reach Killiveddy to provide any assistance due to blockades in some places along the Kantalai-Allai road on Friday
A food convoy led by the ICRC Friday morning from Trincomalee town to Muttur to supply food to civilians was stopped at Kantalai by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) on Friday.
Registering so many people in such chaos is a slow process, but aid is beginning to get through, much from Muslim groups as well as international aid agencies that had previously been working on rebuilding after the 2004 tsunami, which also hit Mutur.
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) says it is ready to feed 25,000 people.
“The problem is that the people are still scattered,” Mahbub Alam, head of WFP operations in north and east Sri Lanka told Reuters. “We also have not yet got the green light to go into Mutur for security reasons.”
Aman Salih from Jamiah-e-Islami said they expected more displaced families to come in the next few days as Norwegian peace envoys try to pull Sri Lanka’s warring parties back from the brink of all-out war.
He warned that unless aid agencies were allowed to bring in supplies, the situation could turn into a “a major humanitarian crisis.”
The Red Cross, which has so far been unable to reach Muttur and deliver vital relief supplies, is pressing the government for security guarantees.
“Our main problem now is food and how to get more organized as this crisis grows,” Salih said, as he tries to keep track of the number of families being housed in a school compound in Kantalai.
“We expect more, a lot more to arrive in the coming days because they are afraid to go home. The government has not given enough protection to these people so that they can go home,” he said.
“We left our house, everything in Muttur,” a displaced Muslim resident, B. M. Aliar told AFP as he begged for left-over curry for his wife and three young children. “We did not want to be killed. But we may starve here if no additional supplies arrive soon.”
