The Sri Lankan government will be applying for food bank assistance from international donors, as an economic and political crisis continues to grip the country, leading to severe food and medicine shortages.

J Krishnamoorthy, Sri Lanka’s food commissioner, told the Financial Times that the government had “just started the process” of applying for food assistance from the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation.

Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court has suspended the pardon of Rajapaksa ally and convicted murderer, Duminda Silva, and ordered for his arrest by the Criminal Investigation Department.

Silva was formerly sentenced to life in prison from 2016 after the Colombo High Court convicted him for involvement in the murder of Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra and three of his supporters during local elections in Colombo in 2011.

The body of a missing 16-year-old girl was recovered from a well in Vavuniya this week.

Earlier in the week, the girl had been reported missing and a search operation had been launched to locate her, leading to her body being discovered.

Her shoes and books were reportedly found on a path near to her home.

The anniversary of the burning of the Jaffna Public Library was commemorated earlier today, marking 41 years since Sri Lankan state backed mobs set ablaze the crucible of Eelam Tamil literature and heritage.  

Tamil journalist, Aiyathurai Nadesan, was remembered by journalists in memorial events held across the North-East, marking 18 years since his assassination. 

Mr Nadesan, commonly known as ‘Nellai Nadesan,’ was shot dead in Batticaloa by a paramilitary group when he was on his way to his office in 2004. Nadesan was a profile journalist and a columist for local Tamil dailies and international news agencies. 

Sri Lanka’s notorious Buddhist monk Galagodaaththe Gnanasara has been welcomed by officials of Saudi Arabia in Riyadh as the kingdom bestowed their support to eradicate “religious extremism” in Sri Lanka.

Following the Canadian federal parliament’s recognition of the Tamil Genocide, US Democratic Representative Deborah Ross has called for the international community, and particularly the US, to follow Canada's lead in recognising the Tamil genocide and deliver justice and accountability Tamil survivors.

Writing in Redflag this week, Tamil Refugee Council member Ben Hillier condemned the newly elected Australian Labor Party (ALP)'s immigration policy and it's handling of the Murugappan family’s immigration case. 

Hillier stated that the new Labor government could have granted permanent protection to the Murugappan family, "the Biloela family snatched from their home four years ago by Border Force and placed in the prison-like conditions of immigration detention by the Liberal government."

May 31, 1981 marked not only the burning of the Jaffna Public Library, but the beginning of a week-long rampage of violence by Sri Lankan security forces and Sinhala mobs which devastated the peninsula.

The violence and devastation was largely ignored by the island’s mainstream press, and even in Tamil Nadu reports did not reach the media for many days, as a result of the shutdown of press throughout the North and general censorship imposed by the Sri Lankan government. Notably, the office and presses of Eelanadu, a prolific Tamil daily coming out of Jaffna since 1959, were burnt to the ground by the mobs. The famous Poobalasingam Book depot was also burnt.

Sri Lanka’s Civil Aviation Authority has told airlines coming to the island to either ensure all flights arrive with the required fuel they need to leave or fill up elsewhere, as fuel shortages amidst an economic crisis wreaks havoc on the island.