Murders of aid workers, pirate attacks, closed borders and growing violence make the distribution of relief in Somalia almost impossible, aid workers say, as conflict and drought boost needs still further. A Somali nurse for a Western aid group and a driver were shot dead late on Wednesday.
Dozens of schoolgirls killed by the air force, Muslims massacred by Tamil Tiger rebels, civilians targeted by both sides. But with occasional fighting still erupting, physically finding the corpses is hard enough. Local populations have fled and finding witnesses is harder than at any stage during the four year truce.
Sri Lanka’s army vowed on Monday to push on with a campaign to wrest control of an eastern water supply from Tamil Tigers, just hours after the rebels warned its continued attacks were a declaration of war. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) offered on Sunday to end a fortnight-long blockade of water to government land to defuse the heaviest fighting since a 2002 ceasefire.
Bodies dumped in wells, dead children hung from rafters and underage boys abducted to fight. During two decades of civil war, such atrocities were commonplace in Sri Lanka but a ceasefire since 2002 halted the worst of the attacks on children.
