Colombo: The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) Friday officially reopened its office in Kilinochchi destroyed during the war in Northern Sri Lanka.
The WFP office was closed in 2008 when the office was destroyed due to the heavy fighting between the government forces and the Tamil Tiger terrorists in the area.
"Much of the 7.5-acre office site had been destroyed following heavy aerial and ground bombardment," WFP spokesperson Emilia Casella told journalists in Geneva.
The fighting ended last May when the government of Sri Lanka completely eliminated the terrorist organization' senior leaders and captured the entire rebel�controlled land.
According to the UN body, the new WFP offices at present consist of portable containers. These will later be expanded to include staff from the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), UN Development Programme (UNDP), UN Department of Safety and Security (UNDSS), Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), UN Children�s Fund (UNICEF), and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), the WFP announced.
The UN food agency says four WFP staff are now on the ground and more will arrive soon. The agency says it will be able to re-establish the monitoring of food dispatches to the targeted population in the area and support the ongoing resettlement and early-recovery process of the region.
Even without an office, WFP has been providing food to the displaced population which includes some 62,000 people in camps and 228,000 others who had returned to their home districts. In addition, the agency provides 300,000 school lunches and take-home rations to 27,000 pregnant and lactating women and small children.
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