A colleague has been killed in the north of the country, where the situation is getting worse every day

R Sabesan, a humanitarian worker for CARE Sri Lanka, died yesterday after being struck by a shell which partly severed his leg. He was one of dozens of aid workers trapped in the conflict zone in the north of the country, known as the Vanni. Medical facilities are practically non-existent there and so Sabesan died of his injuries later that day as a consequence.

According to the International Committee of the Red Cross there are also as many as 150,000 other civilians, also stuck in the Vanni, as the Sri Lankan armed forces close in on the last stronghold of the rebels of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The Sri...