Geneva, April 9 (Inditop) A staff member of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has been killed in Sri Lanka’s conflict area, the Geneva-based organisation said.
Sinnathurai Kugathasan was working for ICRC since 2002 as a water technician. He was hit by a shell Wednesday and killed instantly while fetching water in Ampalavanpokanai, on the coastal belt of the territory held by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), ICRC said in a statement.
Kugathasan was married and has three children.
On March 4, Vadivel Vijayakumar, another ICRC water technician, was also killed by shrapnel in the coastal area.
Despite the incidents, the ICRC continues its essential activities to help conflict-
affected people throughout the country, the organisation said.
The LTTE rebels have been fighting with Sri Lankan military for over two decades in order to set up a separate homeland for the minority Tamil community in the country.
More than 70,000 people have been killed since the mid-1980s in one of the world’s longest civil wars.