Aid supplies low

Thousands of families displaced by warfare in Sri Lanka's northern region are in danger because of dwindling emergency aid stocks, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said on Friday.

Agency spokesman Ron Redmond said supplies of food, water, sanitation equipment, shelter materials, and fuel "are running dangerously low" amid renewed fighting between government forces and Liberation Tigers, reported Reuters.

"In addition, supplies of food, shelter materials, water and sanitation equipment, and fuel for the transportation of civilians are running dangerously low," he said.

"Efforts by humanitarian agencies to replenish the stocks are hindered by the strict restrictions on the transport of goods into the region," he told a news briefing in Geneva.

The UNHCR is calling on both the government and Tamil Tigers to take immediate steps to ensure the protection of those affected, reported the Voice of America news.

It says both sides must allow freedom of movement for those seeking safety from the fighting and ensure that the internally displaced are not targeted and not located near areas where there could be fighting. 

The UNHCR estimates that more than 12,000 families - 60,000 people in total - were displaced in July alone as a result of shifting frontlines in the 25-year-old Sri Lankan conflict that has frequently ensnared civilians.

Redmond says many of these people have been displaced several times. He says people move ahead of the shifting frontlines to avoid the crossfire and to stay out of shelling range.

Recently, U.N. access to the majority of the 10,000 displaced families in the Karachchi area was cut off because of security concerns, Redmond noted.

He says camps for the internally displaced are becoming overcrowded, therefore the UNHCR, local authorities and other agencies are trying to find other sites to accommodate newcomers fleeing the violence.

United Nations' access to the most-affected regions has been hindered because of security concerns about aid workers.