Aid to the Church in Need, a Catholic charity at the forefront of the battle against worldwide persecution, has rushed to the side of Christians in Sri Lanka's northerly Jaffna province where a humanitarian crisis grows.

The charity is responding to an appeal from the peninsula's Catholic bishop for the charity to help suffering Christians in the area.

Dr Thomas Savundaranayagam of Jaffna said in an interview with ACN that his people were living in an "open prison", lacking virtually all contact with the outside world.

He added that the Catholic community was "deeply depressed and discouraged" by the continuing silence over the fate of 34-year-old Jaffna priest Fr Jim Brown, who disappeared at the end of summer and whom the bishop now presumes is dead. Prior to his disappearance, Fr Brown's church was targeted by government forces who suspected that rebel forces had infiltrated the crowds taking refuge there.

Jaffna peninsula has been cut off from the outside world by the Sri Lankan government following fresh fighting with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Land, air and sea communications have all been blocked, ACN said, and the result is now an extreme shortage of food, electricity for only nine hours per day and spiralling unemployment. Meanwhile, urgent post-tsunami reconstruction in the region has ground to a halt as a result of the blockades.

After appeals to the government by Bishop Savundaranayagam, emergency rations of rice, sugar and flour were shipped into the region. He slammed the aid relief, however, as "inadequate", prompting ACN to dispatch an emergency aid package of £13,400.

The bishop also criticised the government for charging people to receive their rations rather than distributing them for free.

Thanks to the ACN package, the Church will now be able to buy rations for people who are unable to afford it. The government has, however, failed to provide essential items such as supplies of coconut oil for cooking, baby food and petrol in its relief package, warned Bishop Savundaranayagam.

"The government has banned access to many things in Jaffna for fear of them getting into the hands of the LTTE," he said.

"They seem to forget that there are people here in Jaffna - not just Tamil Tigers."

Bishop Savundaranayagam said the ACN aid would add to the Church's existing emergency aid relief which is currently bringing much needed daily assistance to 7,000 people.