Families of the disappeared protested in Mannar during Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s visit on Friday.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is assisting the Sri Lankan government in a project that aims to provide potable and irrigation water for dry zones in the North.

The project aims to divert water from the Mahaweli River system to the reservoirs in the North. Specifically, the project aims to retain excess water accumulated through the monsoon flows.

It is estimated that the project will provide 260 kilometers of improvements in canals, tunnels, and reservoirs by 2024. Furthermore, upon completion it is estimated that 1 billion cubic meters of water will reach the North annually with the hope of enhancing water and food security.

President Maithripala Sirisena offered new investigations into alleged secret detentions centres would be established to ascertain their whereabouts.

Speaking in the former wat zone of Sampur, Mr Sirisena said,

“If there are allegations that people are still being held in some locations, the government will set up a mechanism to inspect them.”

The announcement comes after Sri Lanka’s prime minister last year said that the disappeared are most likely dead.

The North-East has seen intensifying protests related to the plight of the disappeared.

Members of the Mahasen Balakaya Sinhalese nationalist group raised a Sinhala flag in Killionochchi on May 18, a day when Tamils were remembering the Mullivaikkaal massacres.

Sri Lanka’s president Maithripala Sirisena pledged the government towards “strengthening the Tri-forces to fulfil its responsibility for national security,” whilst addressing a ‘war heroes’ commemoration event.

A police summons that was issued for Tamil civil society activist Father Elil over his involvement in organising a Mullivaikkaal memorial event was issued today and reversed hours later, following domestic and international pressure on Sri Lankan authorities.

Eight Tamils in Vavuniya were fired by their Southern company for paying tribute to Mullivaikkaal victims on May 18.

The employees of a private motor company had paid tribute after work using the photos of one of their mothers, Rajalakshmi Sivalingam of Puthukudiyirippu, who had been killed in the final stages of the war.

A Sinhalese superior in the company discovered the memorial had taken place and fired the eight with immediate effect, as well as reporting them to the police for investigation.

Tamil genocide day was marked by TNPF members in Vakarai, Batticaloa on Thursday. Gathering on the banks of the lagoon, the participants lit flames and paid tribute to the tens of thousands massacred by the Sri Lankan state in the final stages of the war.

British Tamil students gathered at City University to commemorate those that died in the final stages of the armed ethnic conflict.

Hundreds of people attended a memorial event organised by Tamil civil society marking 8 years since the slaughter of thousands at Mullivaikkaal, after a court order banning the event was varied earlier in the day.