On February 20 2017, Tamil families of the disappeared started their roadside protest across the North-East, starting off in Kilinochchi, followed by Vavuniya, Trincomalee, Mullaitivu and Maruthankerny.

Families of the disappeared marking 1000 days of their protest in Vavuniya

A Tamil man from Jaffna who had been summoned to Sri Lanka’s Terrorism Investigation Division (TID) has been reported as missing by his family.

38-year-old Paramu Vijayakumar was summoned to the TID office in Colombo on the 6th of December. His wife said that Vijayakumar had left for Colombo but has not been seen since.

When she went to file a missing persons complaint at her local police station in Valvettithurai, they reportedly told her they had been in contact with the TID and no summons had been issued for her husband.

Tamils in Jaffna staged a protest in the city centre last week, demonstrating against illegal sand mining that has stepped up across the North-East in recent months.

The Sri Lankan government has criticised Fitch Ratings after the agency downgraded the Long-Term Foreign-Currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) of Sri Lanka from ‘Stable' to ‘Negative’, directly citing new Sri Lankan president Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s actions.

The ratings agency had blamed a “significant shift in fiscal policy” in Colombo for the downgrade but Sri Lanka’s finance ministry claimed “erroneous assumptions” had been made, reports Xinhua.

"Taking all into consideration, the best estimate of the budget deficit would be around 5.5 percent of GDP in 2020, as against the Fitch's projection of 6.5 percent of GDP," the ministry said.

An attempt by a Sri Lankan government body to install a statue of a Buddhist historical figure in Jaffna town failed after local residents and council members opposed the unveiling.

Sri Lankan police threatened residents of a Mannar village including the local priest when they protested against Sinhalese people illegally extracting sand from the village.

Residents of Thottaveli have for several years complained of illegal sand mining causing environmental damage to the area and leaving villages prone to flooding and soil erosion.

Sri Lanka’s president Gotabaya Rajapaksa stated that a United Nations resolution mandating a hybrid accountability mechanism “cannot be entertained” in a meeting with journalists this week. 

Speaking on the resolution, Rajapaksa reportedly said that “it is not possible for the Government to act against its own country”.

According to the President’s Media Division, he was also quoted as saying it “is not possible to allow any harm to the soldiers or the independence of the country”.

The rating agency Fitch has downgraded the Long-Term Foreign-Currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) of Sri Lanka from Stable to Negative directly citing new Sri Lankan president Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s actions.

An IDR refers to a country’s likelihood to default. In Sri Lanka’s example, the island in the next 3 years owes $19 billion in contrast to a reserve of foreign currency totalling only $7.5 billion, leading to growing nervousness amongst lenders and rating agencies. Rajapaksa's actions since coming to office have added to Sri Lanka’s inability to repay its debt.

A Tamil man who had been reported as missing by his family in Mannar last week, has been found dead on Friday morning.

Thirty-year-old Antonis Nimal who is employed as an outreach officer at the Nanattan divisional council was last seen leaving for work on Saturday morning. His wife reported him missing to Murungan police on Saturday night as he had not returned home that evening.