<p>International Monetary Fund (IMF) officials are to visit Sri Lanka on February 15 to discuss granting the fifth tranche of the US$ 1.5 billion loan.&nbsp;</p> <p>The granting of the tranche was postponed last year following weeks of political crisis after the president sacked the prime minister and dissolved parliament.&nbsp;</p> <p>The IMD disbursed US $1 billion of the $ 1.5 billion three year EFF loan that was agreed in 2016.&nbsp;</p> <p>In the wake of Sri Lanka’s political turmoil, several major international agencies downgraded the government’s credit rating, in what was seen as a blow to the island’s economy.&nbsp;</p>

Senior US policy figure Samantha power will be speaking at an event in Colombo later this month marking “30 years in parliamentary politics” for Sri Lanka’s current media minister Mangala Samaraweera.

The force commander of the UN Peacekeeping Mission in Mali praised the “discipline” of Sri Lankan peacekeepers this week, as he met with Sri Lankan military officials in Colombo. 

The Sri Lankan army has been accused of selling cigarettes to underage students at a canteen it runs on occupied land in Mullaitivu.

Residents of Puthukudiyiruppu said the army canteen, named ‘Kamuko Café’, had been selling cigarettes to local students, despite it being illegal to sell tobacco products to anyone under the age of 21.

The revelations have angered locals as the canteen is already reviled for being set up on occupied private land, the return of which the landowners have been campaigning for over two years.

A new media centre funded by a British Tamil student group was opened at a Mullaitivu school on January 29.

The media centre at Kumulamunai Maha Vidyalayam was a project conceived and funded by the UK Tamil Students Union (UKTSU).

Families in Keppapulavu, demonstrating outside a military camp against the occupation of their lands, were forced to cover their make-shift shacks with sheets due to ongoing military harassment. 

The protesters, many of whom are woman, reported being continously photographed and watched by military intelligence, expressing concern and intimidation at the military's continous gaze.

Activists in Tamil Nadu, India held a protest this week in Bangalore condemning the Sri Lankan president's visit to the country to speak at an event organised by The Hindu newspaper. 

Protests continued today in Vavuniya as families of the disappeared demanded action from Tamil politicians on the issue. 

The families, who have expressed increasing frustration towards the leadership of the Tamil National Alliance's (TNA), who they argue are in the hands of the United National Party, protested today outside the Road Development Authority's office. 

The protest was held to mark two years since the families met with the UNP leader and Sri Lankan prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe and he pledged to find a solution. 

Continuing months of protest, families of the disappeared today held a demonstration outside the Jaffna District Secretariat's Office. 

Mothers wept holding photos of their disappeared children as they demanded answers and justice. 

<p>Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner for Pakistan has thanked Pakistan for “taking a stand with Sri Lanka against the resolution presented in UNHRC to investigate the alleged war crimes by Sri Lankan government,” Pakistan newspaper The News reports.</p> <p>“Sri Lanka will never forget when Pakistan clearly stated in UNHRC that any such attempt would be a clear violation of the sovereignty of Sri Lanka,” the High Commissioner Noordeen Mohamed Shaheid said at a conference about the ‘Enduring Friendship between Sri Lanka and Pakistan’.</p>