Aid organizations met with Russian authorities yesterday to ask to be allowed to enter South Ossetia, a Georgian province controlled by Russian troops. The groups say tens of thousands of people are in need of food and medical care, Reuters reports.

Aid workers have been kept out of the province since the start of the conflict between Moscow and Tbilisi, which has lasted 11 days.

Jakob Kellenberger, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, spoke with the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow yesterday; Antonio Guterres, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, is set to meet Mr. Lavrov today.

Red Cross officials who reached the western Georgian town of Gori several days ago were approached by residents asking for food and medicine, said Anna Nelson, a spokeswoman for the international Red Cross. Ms. Nelson said the organization has flown 430 tons of food and medical supplies into Georgia in the past week.

Officials at the United Nations estimated that 158,700 people have been uprooted by the conflict, including 30,000 people from South Ossetia who have been allowed by Russian authorities to remain in North Ossetia, a part of the Russian Federation.

The United Nations appealed on Monday for $58.6-million to help survivors of the crisis with food and other essential aid for the next six months.