(WASHINGTON, DC) – The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has delivered more than 100,000 tons of humanitarian aid to Sri Lanka in the past week. The Sri Lankan government received the second shipment of emergency assistance, including foodstuffs, medicines, rugs, blankets and tents, in Colombo today. The first shipment of supplies was delivered on July 8.

The emergency provisions delivered this week were contributed by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to aid to the humanitarian crisis caused by the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Sri Lankans.

In the first six months of 2009, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has donated more than $6 million in foreign aid to the region and continues to provide relief aide for victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, including:

• $3 million to the Islamic Development Bank delivered on June 21 by the Saudi Charitable Campaign for the Relief of the Victims of the Earthquake and Tsunami in East Asia.
• $3.1 million to the International Organization of Migration (IOM) from the Saudi Charitable Campaign for the Relief of the Victims of the Tsunami in East Asia.

Through the World Bank’s current International Development Association Fourteenth Replenishment (IDA 14), Saudi Arabia has contributed total cumulative resources to IDA of over two billion dollars. Since 1978, Saudi Arabia has donated an average of 4 percent of the Kingdom’s GDP in annual foreign aid; the official United Nations’ goal is 0.7 percent annually.