Sri Lanka: with supplies cut ‘serious problem’ looms in Jaffna, UN warns

A “serious problem” is looming in Sri Lanka’s northern Jaffna peninsula where escalating violence between the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and Government forces has cut food supplies and driven 60,000 people, nearly half of them children, into displaced persons camps, United Nations agencies have warned.

“The power has been cut,” the head of UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Jaffna office, Judith Bruno, said. “In the last few days we have only one hour of electricity. There is no petrol in Jaffna. There are no construction activities. Everything has stopped.”

Roads to Jaffna are blockaded because of the increased violence, which started on 11 August, and emergency supplies are not getting into the district by land. Ms. Bruno said two boatloads of government provisions had been delivered, including a total of 5,000 metric tons of food.

“This is against a need of more than 10,000 metric tons for the whole population for a month,” she noted. “If food shortages continue, children and mothers will face serious effects on their health. We are on the verge of a serious problem.”

Children are the ones most affected by displacement, suffering from the scarcity of water and sanitation facilities, lack of adequate food, no electricity and conditions too dangerous to attend school.

“You must remember that last year they were displaced by the tsunami,” Ms. Bruno said. “And now again they are displaced, and many of them have lost family members in the conflict. It will take some time to be able to deal with this emotional stress.”

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said a majority of the displaced are from the families of fishermen, farmers and day labourers, all of whom have lost their livelihoods due to the conflict. Most of the humanitarian workers in the region, who were in Sri Lanka to help rebuild after the tsunami that struck a year and a half earlier, left in August due to the dangerous conditions.

UNHCR reported last month that overall nearly 205,000 people had been driven from their homes since renewed violence in April in the Indian Ocean island’s north and east.