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UN says Sri Lankan aid supplies dangerously low

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

  • Agencies
  • Published: 15:14 August 8, 2008
  • Gulf News

Geneva: Thousands of families displaced by warfare in Sri Lanka's northern region are in danger because of dwindling emergency aid stocks, the UN 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 separatist rebels.

"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 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.

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

The Sri Lankan government is waging an offensive against the Tamil Tigers to try to retake their northern stronghold and win the civil war that has killed more than 70,000 people.

A defence spokesman on Thursday rejected any possibility of a ceasefire or peace talks with the Tigers, who want an independent state in north and east Sri Lanka for ethnic Tamils.

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