United Nations Radio

The World Food Programme (WFP) has dispatched a first convoy of food and other supplies for 200,000 people in the area controlled by the Tamil Tigers in Northern Sri Lanka.

The UN food agency says the food is enough to feed the population for one week and over the coming weeks it plans to send a minimum of one aid convoy per week.

WFP says the population has been cut off from humanitarian assistance for more than two weeks after fighting escalated in the region.

United Nations and other international agencies withdrew from the Vanni Region after the government issued a directive for staff to be relocated outside the areas controlled by the Tamil Tigers.

The World Food Programme is currently providing humanitarian food supplies for more than one million people in Sri Lanka.

Diane Bailey, United Nations Radio.

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