Kilinochchi

9.383333333333380.4Koordinaten: 9 ° 23 ' N, 80 ° 24' O

Kilinochchi (Tamil: கிளிநொச்சி Kiḷinocci [ kɨɭinot ʃi ː ], Sinhala: කිලිනොච්චි Kilinocci [ kilinot ʃi ː ] ) is a city in northern Sri Lanka. It is located about 70 kilometers south-east of Jaffna and Kilinochchi district is the administrative seat of the Northern Province.

Kilinochchi is situated in the Vanni region in the Tamil populated northern Sri Lanka. The territory of Kilinochchi was long very sparsely populated. The town of Kilinochchi was founded only in 1936 as part of a Kolonisierungsprogramms with the aim to alleviate the population pressure on the densely populated Jaffna Peninsula.

Kilinochchi is one of the areas that have been claimed by Tamil separatists as part of an independent state of Tamil Eelam and was from 1983 to 2009 affected by the civil war in Sri Lanka. In 1990 the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam ( LTTE) after the withdrawal of the Indian Peace Keeping troops take control of the city. In September 1996, the government troops took Kilinochchi, in September 1998, but the city was retaken by the LTTE and was from then on as the de facto capital of the LTTE-controlled areas. In their offensive in the final stages of the civil war, the Sri Lankan army captured Kilinochchi on January 2, 2009.

By Kilinochchi the highway A9 Kandy leads to Jaffna, the main public transport links to the north of Sri Lanka. Kilinochchi is connected via the northern line of the Sri Lankan Railways on the railway network. After the rail had been adjusted as a result of the civil war in 1990, the route to Kilinochchi was reopened in September 2013.