Tamil families carried out protests in Batticaloa and Jaffna yesterday, calling for an international investigation into enforced disappearances and the Tamil genocide. 

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.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF)  conducted an Article IV consultation in Sri Lanka where they stressed the urgency to implement a credible strategy to address one of the worst financial crises the country has faced. 

Sri Lanka’s finance minister has urged all Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) heads of local government bodies to switch off streetlights of their respective areas until the end of March to conserve energy as Sri Lanka’s economic crisis continues to worsen.

Students from Tamil Nadu and Kerala who had managed to arrive in Poland with no support from India's Minister of External Affairs, are now facing further discrimination, according to the latest reports.

Although the official policy was supposed to be “first come first served”, Tamil Nadu and Kerala students report being denied the same preferential treatment as North Indians.

Colombo Archbishop Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith told the UN Human Rights Council that the Easter Sunday attacks in 2019 were part of a “grand political plot”, in an address were he called on the international body to ensure there was an “impartial investigation to unravel the truth”.

Tamil journalist, Murugupillai Kokulathasan, has been released on bail today by Valaichenai Magistrate court, after being held in detention for over 470 days under the notorious Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA).

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.

British MP, Virendra Sharma, has joined a number of prominent British MPs who and Tamil activists who have called on the UK Foreign Secretary to impose Magnitsky style sanctions on Sri Lankan army commander, Shavendra Silva.

Sri Lanka is facing drug shortages due to unfavourable internal price controls and a worsening forex crisis making it harder for vendors to purchase drugs, leading to acute shortages of 5 per cent of medicines registered with the National Medicines Regulatory authority which includes paracetamol and drugs for diabetes, high blood pressure and cholesterol. 

Recently sacked Sri Lankan ministers Wimal Weerawansa and Udaya Gammanpila reportedly declared war on the government and warned to expose who was the ‘main cause’ of the island’s crisis. 

The British government said it will continue to support engagement between the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and Sri Lanka on accountability and human rights, when questioned on the UK's plans to pursue an international investigation into rights abuses.

Sri Lanka's power regulator had sought USD $150 million from the Sri Lankan central bank, in order to import fuel for the next two months but no response has been received forcing power cuts of over 7 hours. 

Farmers in Mannar have been unable to harvest their crops this week due to Sri Lanka’s ongoing fuel shortage.