Humanitarian disaster in Sri Lanka

Thousands of civilians abandoned to their fate, hundreds of wounded trapped without medical aid. In Sri Lanka, the International Committee of the Red Cross says it is powerless in the face of an unimaginable catastrophe. And the Sri Lankan government has once again rejected calls from the international community to stop the offensive against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

The war zone is located in the northeast of Sri Lanka, on a coastal strip of 4 km2. The separatist rebels are surrounded and between 20,000 and 50,000 civilians are still trapped. But according to these images of the Sri Lankan army, several thousand inhabitants managed to flee by crossing a lagoon. 2,000 civilians are said to have passed through government zones. This is the first flight of Tamil inhabitants since a mass exodus of 115,000 people between April 20 and 25. Tamil Tigers are accused of using the inhabitants as human shields. And humanitarian access is almost impossible. (The last ICRC food aid delivery was last Saturday.)

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