Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon expressed his concerns about the protection of civilians caught up in the conflict in Sri Lanka to President Mahinda Rajapaksa, and sent his “Chef de Cabinet”, Vijay Nambiar, to the country.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimates that over 50,000 people are trapped in the conflict zone, at great risk and in a desperate need of food and supplies. More than 198,000 people have managed to leave and crossed to Government-controlled areas. Of those, nearly 196,000 people are accommodated in temporary, overcrowded camps.
The UN spokesman in Sri Lanka, Gordon Weiss, says conditions inside the camps are still “miserable,” owing to overcrowding and poor hygiene conditions. In addition, “they are dealing with an extremely fragile population who have been through a terrible time – certainly an intensely terrible time for the past three months,” he said giving a description of the situation.
Ban Ki-moon, urged both sides in the conflict to do all possible efforts so as to stop the killing.
