International aid agencies pulling out of the Vanni in early September has exacerbated the already difficult life of those who had displaced to the region, local reports said.
With the impending monsoon, assuring access to fresh food and reliable shelter has become a priority for both the remaining local agencies and the displaced alike.
"The most pressing needs of these people are security, health, water, shelter, sanitation and food," Anthony Dalziel, ICRC deputy chief in
The United Nations and other aid agencies withdrew from the Vanni last month after the Sri Lankan government ordered them out of the war zones.
Though many protested at leaving the civilians as their situation was worsening, all eventually left as their own security became precarious.
The government said it could not guarantee their safety.
Analysts suggest the government wants to avoid more incidents like the killing of 17 aid workers as the fighting was moving into Muttur in August 2006, a massacre that has been blamed on Sri Lankan government troops.
Whilst there had not yet been any reports of food shortages in the Vanni, ICRC officials said there were areas of concern.
The withdrawal of aid agencies has already resulted in a mass reduction in food supply to the Vanni region.
This week a United Nations convoy of fifty-one trucks was finally allowed through the Omanthai checkpoint, accompanied by UN staff, but locals said this was nowhere near enough.
"We hope this will be the first of many such convoys," a World Food Programme (WFP) spokesman told BBC.
"We are not talking about starvation in the north, but we are talking about people whose ability to cope after heavy fighting over the last month has been seriously eroded."
According to the Sri Lankan Minister for Disaster Management and Human Rights, Mahinda Samarasinghe, this is "just the beginning of a consistent strategy" to ensure there is sufficient food supplies for the displaced people in the Vanni.
But aid workers say the government is reluctant to allow the convoys through.
The attempt to fix explosives onto one of the trucks, an act that has been condemned by the UN, was cited as a clear attempt to obstruct the convoy.
Though no group has claimed responsibility for the attempted attack, reporters note that the explosives were placed on the truck while it was being monitored by the Sri Lankan military.
“The convoy will transport and distribute food to four locations to the east of Kilinochchi, where the majority of displaced civilians are thought to have concentrated,” according to a press release issued in Colombo by the Office of the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Sri Lanka.
Civilians – both those already displaced and those who used to reside in Kilinochchi – are fleeing further east towards Mullaitivu as the Sri Lanka Army approaches the town that used to be the operational headquarters of the LTTE, the BBC reported.
They had already started moving to avoid aerial attacks by the Sri Lankan Air Force, which press reports said had been targeting civilian areas for the last few weeks.
Although the government has urged civilians to move into Vavuniya, which is under government control, the vast majority are deciding to head deeper into LTTE controlled areas, local reports said.
"They are setting up camp in the Darmapuram area, about 15 km from Kilinochchi, where there is water because of irrigation canals," IPS quoted civilian sources in Kilinochchi as saying.
"But toilet facilities will be a big problem because everyone is using the open grounds," the sources had cautioned.
There were more attacks on Kilinochchi town on Friday, the government's top civil servant in Kilinochchi district, Nagalingam Vedanayagan, confirmed.
"Shelling and other attacks are taking place in Kilinochchi," he told the BBC Tamil service.
"To escape the fighting people are moving towards the east. Most of them have been moving out."
Additionally with the continual aerial bombardment, the movement of civilians has left many without any appropriate shelter.
"People are living under trees. They don't even have a mat to sleep on. There is no electricity," one resident told BBC.
With many more likely to become displaced, the sight of whole families living in these conditions is likely to become even more prevalent, analysts predict.
The health services available in the region have also become a casualty of the ongoing conflict.
"Local health facilities have moved along with the civilian population and are continuing to provide health services under extremely difficult conditions," the ICRC deputy told reporters.
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Though there have been no health problems yet, “the approaching monsoon rains are cause for concern”, noted the ICRC deputy.
Kilinochchi hospital has already moved from its original position, with relocating 18km north of the town on September 27.
Patients, staff and records were moved to two schools as a temporary measure.
The hospital had a severe logistical problem in shifting the seriously ill patients, and most importantly the giant generator which supplies power to the refrigerators in which vaccines, medicines and blood were stored, Provincial Health Services Regional Director Dr. T. Sathyamoorthi told The Sunday Times.
The hospital buildings had already been slightly damaged in aerial bombardment and shelling in the vicinity, he said.
The UN reports that 45 percent of university applicants in the Vanni were unable to sit their entrance exams due to the fighting.
The educational prospects of at least 30,000 school children are also affected according to NGOs operating in the area.
