The Sri Lankan government said Sunday that it has dispatched more food to the displaced Tamil civilians trapped in the island's northern battle zone. "We sent 90 metric tons of food yesterday (Saturday) by sea to Mullaittivu," Rishath Bathiyutheen, the minister of Resettlement told reporters.
Bathiyutheen said the food will be distributed among the civilians by the Government Agent's network.
Some 70,000 civilians are believed to be trapped in the Mullaithivu area, the last stronghold of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
Meanwhile, the Navy said that it ferried another lot of over 100 sick civilians from Mullaittivu to the eastern port of Trincomalee by the ship "Green Ocean" Saturday night.
They will be provided with medical facilities in Trincomalee.
Some 2,000 of the sick had been ferried to Trincomalee during February, officials said.
The LTTE has faced international condemnation for holding the civilians as human shields in the military clashes with government troops.
The government created two safe zones for civilians to leave the battle zone and has urged the rebels to allow free movement for them.
Over 36,000 civilians have already arrived in government controlled areas in Vavuniya and Jaffna where the government provides welfare facilities for the civilians.
The military said their war against the LTTE is at the final stage as the rebel group has been cornered in a small area less than 60 sq km in Mullaittivu.
The LTTE has been fighting since the mid-1980s to set up a separate homeland for the minority Tamil community in the island's north and east, claiming discrimination at the hands of the Sinhalese majority ruling community.
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