The WFP has laready sent eight food convoys to Vanni since October

“The convoy delivered 870 tons of food, enough to feed over 230,000 people for a week, to Puthukkudiyiruppu,” a statement issued by WFP on Tuesday said.

It was the eighth WFP food convoy to be sent, and the WFP said the next convoy of 829 tons of food items is being prepared to be sent to Vanni.

The WFP added that is has already dispatched, in co-operation with Sri Lanka government, 4,990 tons of food aid to internally displaced people (IDPs) in the rebel-held north.

The convoy delivered 870 tons of food, enough to feed over 230,000 people for a week, to Puthukkudiyiruppu WFP statement

“In addition, a total of 781 tons of rice, locally procured by WFP in the Vanni, is part of the overall food distribution,” the statement said.

The United Nations and aid agencies estimate that nearly 200,000 to 230,000 IDPs are in the war-torn areas.

HRW statements

In a statement issued on Tuesday, the New York based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said the IDPs in Vanni are facing severe food shortages as a result of government order for the aid agencies to leave Vanni.

	HRW says IDPs in Vanni lack basic facilities after aid groups pulled out

“Human Rights Watch’s research found that government efforts, contrary to its claims, to fill the massive humanitarian gap caused by ordering aid agencies to leave have fallen far short,” the HRW statement said.

Sri Lanka government ordered all UN and other aid agencies to leave the war zone in September. Only ICRC and Caritas were allowed to carry out their work.

“The government’s empty claims are not reflected on the ground, where even government officials in the Vanni are constantly sounding the alarm bells about humanitarian needs,” HRW Asia director, Brad Adams said.

Trapped in the LTTE’s iron fist, ordinary Tamils are forcibly recruited as fighters and forced to engage in dangerous labor near the front lines HRW Asia director, Brad Adams

The human rights group last week accused the Tamil Tigers of stepping up the forced recruitment and keeping the civilians under their control as a human shield.

“Trapped in the LTTE’s iron fist, ordinary Tamils are forcibly recruited as fighters and forced to engage in dangerous labor near the front lines,” Brad Adams said.

The rights watchdog accused the Tamil Tigers, who "claim to be the sole representative of Sri Lanka’s Tamil people", of not allowing civilians under their control to leave Vanni.

“By refusing to allow people their basic rights to freedom of movement, the LTTE has trapped hundreds of thousands of civilians in a dangerous war zone,” he said.