US donates $6 mn for displaced Tamils in Sri Lanka

A US aid agency has donated an additional $6 million to provide life-saving interventions for the displaced Tamil civilians, who have been uprooted due to the ongoing conflict in the embattled north of Sri Lanka.

The US Agency for International Development, through the Office of US Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) donated the money as non-food aid assistance to provide life-saving interventions for Internally Displaced People (IDPs) in northern Sri Lanka.

This is in addition to USAID's recent announcement of a $15 million food aid to the UN World Food Programme.

"I am pleased that USAID can provide this short-term relief, which complements our substantial food aid donations to assist the civilians affected by the conflict in the North," stated USAID Mission Director Rebecca Cohn.

Meanwhile, the UN on Tuesday that said thousands of civilians fleeing fighting in northern Sri Lanka were severely undernourished when they reached camps outside the combat zone.

"The humanitarian situation for those trapped in the conflict zone obviously is desperate," said Emilia Casella, spokeswoman for the World Food Programme.

Many internally displaced people (IDP) said they had not had a proper meal in days, she added. "What we are seeing among the new IDPs is, children under five, pregnant women and elderly who are severely undernourished," she added.