Lanka battle zone facing 'food crisis': UN agency

Handout picture released yesterday by Sri Lankan President's Office, shows a group of school children attending classes at a makeshift camp for internally displaced people in the northern district of Vavuniya. The government has set up large makeshift camps to house thousands of civilians fleeing the fighting from Tamil Tiger controlled areas in the north.Photo: AFP

About 250,000 people in the embattled north- eastern Vanni region of Sri Lanka are facing a food crisis and surviving on fraught aid deliveries, the UN's food relief agency said yesterday.
"At present the entire population of the Vanni is facing a food crisis due to the continuous displacement, crop failure and recent floods," said World Food programme spokeswoman Emilia Casella.
"We would estimate now that the Vanni caseload would be about 250,000 people," she added.
"There is complete dependence on humanitarian food assistance for survival."
The Vanni region is at the heart of bitter fighting between government forces and Tamil Tiger rebels in recent weeks.
There has been growing concern for the safety of civilians amid reports from the international Red Cross that "hundreds" have already been killed, while relief agencies have said tens of thousands are cut off behind the frontline.