Some 44,000 folks displaced by flooding throughout the nation as aid operations intensify amid widespread destruction.
Revealed On 29 Nov 2025
Sri Lanka has made an attraction for worldwide help because the dying toll from heavy rains and floods triggered by Cyclone Ditwah rose to 123, with one other 130 reported lacking.
The extreme weather system has destroyed almost 15,000 properties throughout the nation, sending virtually 44,000 folks to state-run non permanent shelters, the Catastrophe Administration Centre (DMC) stated on Saturday.
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Though Cyclone Ditwah was heading in direction of neighbouring India to the north on Saturday, extra landslides have hit the central district of Kandy, 115km (70 miles) east of the capital Colombo, with the primary entry highway below water at a number of areas.
DMC Director-Common Sampath Kotuwegoda stated aid operations had been strengthened with the deployment of hundreds of members of the military, navy and air drive as he introduced the newest casualty figures.
“Aid operations with the assistance of the armed forces are below approach,” Kotuwegoda informed reporters in Colombo.
Mahesh Gunasekara, the secretary-general of the Sri Lanka Pink Cross Society, stated many individuals have been stranded in varied flood-hit areas as rescue crews are attempting to succeed in them.
“Aid wants have been rising. After two days, water has nonetheless been swelling,” he stated.
“Though the cyclone is slowly transferring away from the nation, it’s not over for us but,” Gunasekara added.
Flooding prompted authorities to situation evacuation orders for these dwelling alongside the banks of the Kelani River, which flows into the Indian Ocean from Colombo.
The Kelani burst its banks on Friday night, forcing tons of of individuals into non permanent shelters, the DMC stated.
The federal government issued an attraction for worldwide assist and requested Sri Lankans overseas to make money donations to assist almost half 1,000,000 affected folks.
Officers stated Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya had met with Colombo-based diplomats to replace them on the state of affairs and search the assistance of their governments.
India was the primary to reply, sending two planeloads of aid provides, whereas an Indian warship already in Colombo on a beforehand deliberate goodwill go to donated its rations to assist victims.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his condolences over the deaths in Sri Lanka and stated New Delhi was able to ship extra help.
“We stand prepared to supply extra help and help because the state of affairs evolves,” Modi stated on X.
Whereas rain had eased in most elements of Sri Lanka on Saturday, together with the capital, elements of the island’s north had been nonetheless experiencing showers as a result of residual results of Cyclone Ditwah.
DMC officers stated they anticipated flood ranges to exceed these recorded in 2016, when 71 folks had been killed nationwide.
This week’s weather-related toll is the best since June final yr, when 26 folks had been killed following heavy rains.
In December, 17 folks died in flooding and landslides.
