A curfew has been imposed across parts of Colombo as the military is called to squash anti-government protests. 

Sri Lanka is currently facing its worst economic crisis in decades with routine power outages and shortages of essential items impacting the whole island.

Today the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) announced that it would impose a 13-hour power outage across many parts of the island, as diesel fuel ran out, severely impacting power generation across many plants. However, a list released by the Public Utilities Commission detailed 191 areas across the country where power cuts would not be implemented, the President's House being one of them. 

As Sri Lanka’s president claimed to welcome the global Tamil diaspora to invest in the cash-stricken country, many across the world remain wary - particularly as corruption, human rights abuses and repression of the Tamil people continues on the island.

"This is all just a farce," said Theepan*, a Tamil rights activist based in Switzerland. “After forcing us out of our homeland, torturing, raping and killing us, now the Sri Lankan state needs our help."

In the midst of Sri Lanka’s worst financial crisis in living memory, a massive music festival with international acts, pyrotechnics and thousands of people was held in Colombo on Saturday, even as locals endured power cuts and hours-long queues for basic supplies.

As reports of a Russian airstrike on a hospital in Mariupol, Ukraine begin to surface, we take a look at what international law states on the targeting of hospitals and on when they have been hit in Sri Lanka.

Protests were held in Mullaitivu, Kilinochchi, Vavuniya and Colombo today, as International Women’s Day was marked across the island with Tamil women leading demonstrations.

As the United Nations Human Rights Council continued to discuss Sri Lanka today, several member states including the United States and Britain expressed “concerns regarding the continued lack of progress on accountability” for mass atrocities on the island.

Whilst many states expressed concern at the situation in Sri Lanka, Colombo did however have some familiar defenders at the global body – including Russia and Belarus. Both states are currently under international scrutiny and widespread sanctions over the invasion of Ukraine.

As Russia continues its offensive in Ukraine, it has been accused of launching deadly types of weaponry during its assault – thermobaric and cluster bombs.

Both types of weaponry have been used around the world before, including in Sri Lanka. We look back at their deployment by the Sri Lankan military.

In a new report, the UN High Commissioner expresses concern over the lack of accountability for human rights violations committed by Sri Lanka and renewed her call to member states to use universal jurisdictions and targeted sanctions against alleged perpetrators of human rights abuses.  

The Metropolitan Police’s War Crimes Team have arrested a 48-year-old man in Britain over the murder of Tamil journalist Mylvaganam Nimalarajan in Jaffna more than 20 years ago - marking the first time that British authorities have made an arrest over war crimes committed in Sri Lanka.

“I was very naive in the beginning,” says Nasser Shaikh. He travelled to Sri Lanka and met with senior government officials after his brother had been brutally murdered. He had hoped for answers and the real truth.    

“I guess they told me everything, I needed to hear.”

Nasser spoke to the Tamil Guardian about his struggle to seek justice that spanned from his hometown of Manchester to Colombo in Sri Lanka.