Aid Worker Killed in Sri Lanka

by Michael Bear · 2009-03-05 05:26:00 UTC
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And yet more depressing news - Patronus Analytical reports that a staff member with the International Committee of the Red Cross was killed in northern Sri Lanka during an artillery attack.

Our thoughts and prayers are with Mr. K. Vijayarasa's family and colleagues.

The situation in northern Sri Lanka continues to deteriorate.  According to a recent article by Deutsche Presse Agentur:

"Gordon Wiess, the spokesman for the UN's operations in Sri Lanka warned that some 70,000 to 200,000 people were trapped in a tiny enclave between a lagoon and the seafront, desperate for food, shelter and drinking water.

Jacques de Maio, an official with the International Committee of the Red Cross, went further, saying that regarding 'the civilian population trapped by the continuing fighting in the Vanni region, it is definitely one of the most disastrous situations I have come across.'

'There is heavy shelling, almost non-stop, no place for people to run,' Annemarie Loof, the head of mission for Medecins Sans Frontiers (Doctors Without Borders, MSF) in Sri Lanka."

For more information about the crisis, see here.

Michael Bear
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