Ship on Mercy Mission crosses Suez Canal en route to Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 May 2009, 22:23 GMT]
Mercy Mission ship, “Captain Ali” set sail from Fos-Sur-Mer, France on the 2nd leg of the mission, carrying approximately 884 metric tons of food, medicine, and other essential humanitarian relief items destined for the Tamil civilians in the Vanni area of Northern Sri Lanka displaced by the war just entered the Red Sea after traveling through the Suez Canal, a press release issued by the organizers of the mission said. The ship began the 1st leg of its journey from the Port of Ipswich, UK on 20 April 2009.

An ex-Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) monitor, Mr. Kristjan Guðmundsson, from Iceland, doctors, and humanitarian workers are traveling with the humanitarian relief on board the ship, the press release said.

"The ship has been equipped with an internet satellite facility and Mr. Guðmundsson, the doctors, and humanitarian workers will be filing daily video blogs, photo essays, personal reflections and twice daily reports...," the press release added.

Details of how the relief items are to be distributed are not provided in the release.

Chronology: