SRI LANKA: Focus on food insecurity in Jaffna

Photo: Contributor/IRIN

Parameswary Rasakumar struggles to feed her family

JAFFNA, 9 July 2012 (IRIN) - In Sri Lanka’s northern Jaffna District, Parameswary Rasakumar, 32, a mother of two, points to an assortment of red plastic containers on the floor of her makeshift shelter, holding what little food the family has. “That’s it. That’s all the food we have in the house at the moment.” 

Her husband works as a casual day labourer. “We no longer get any food assistance from the government and now have to buy food on credit. When my husband doesn’t work we go without.” A lack of basic services, including water supply and sanitation, is exacerbating living conditions. 

Jaffna District comprises a peninsula and seven inhabited islands at the extreme northern tip of the island, and such stories are not uncommon among the more than 580,000 inhabitants, who are still recovering from a civil war that began in 1983 - one of the world’s longest conflicts. 

Hundreds of thousands of people who fled the fighting have returned to Northern Province since the conflict between government forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who had been fighting for an independent Tamil homeland, ended in 2009. 

The province comprises five districts: Jaffna, Kilinochchi, Vavuniya, Mannar and Mullaitivu. 

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