WFP urges intl community to help war-hit Lankans

Colombo, May 18: A senior official of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today urged the international donor community to provide urgent financial assistance of nearly 11 million dollars to feed the war-hit people in Sri Lanka.

There is a critical and urgent need for additional contributions to cover the costs of feeding the greatly expanded number of persons displaced by the fighting mainly in and around Batticaloa (district in the east), Tony Banbury, Regional Director for WFP for Asia told newspersons here today.

''The WFP needs not less than 10.7 million US dollars for programmes helping the IDPS in and other vulnerable groups for the next six months,'' he said, adding that there are over 400,000 Internally Displaced People (IDPs) in Sri Lanka.

He said he has held a crucial meeting with the Colombo-based diplomats of the international donor community today to explain the unfolding situation and the urgent need for more financial assistance in this regard.

With the resumption of hostilities between the government and the LTTE last year, the visiting WFP Regional Director for Asia said the WFP has already increased and expanded its operations to provide food assistance to the most vulnerable displaced and conflict-hit people in these districts.

Mr Banbury expressed serious concern over the deteriorating humanitarian situation here as a result of the resurgence of violence in the recent past and called upon all the parties to respect basic humanitarian principles.

Raising concerns about critical operational constraints impacting the ability of the WFP and other UN and humanitarian workers to aid those people, he urged the parties to allow food and humanitarian assistance to be delivered unhindered to thousands of people affected by the recent violence, mainly in eastern Batticloa and northern Jaffna districts.

UNI

Related Stories