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Misery returns: floods hit east again

Over 100,000 people have been displaced and more than 300,000 affected by a second wave of flooding in eastern Sri Lanka in less than a month, aid officials say.

Over 43,000 have been marooned, Xinhua reported.

Floods in mid-January displaced over 380,000 and affected over one million at their height, prompting the UN and its partners to launch a US$51 million appeal in support of the government.

“The same districts that were hit the last time - Ampara, Batticaloa, Trincomalee and Polonnaruwa - have been experiencing heavy rains in the past few days,” Pradeep Kodippili, assistant director of the Disaster Management Centre, the main government body overseeing relief efforts, told IRIN on Friday.

Sri Lanka's weather department says heavy rains could continue until May.

File photo: Have rains swamped roads, villages and fields in Batticaloa and Amparai. AFP/GettyImages.

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