<p>Tamil diaspora groups have called for an international accountability mechanism on Sri Lanka, following Sri Lanka's announcement to withdraw from the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) resolutions.</p>

^{(Photo credit: @TnpfOrg - Twitter)}

The Tamil National People's Front (TNPF) have organised an initiative to aid Tamil people in the North-East as the Sri Lanka government continues to enforce strict curfews and lockdown measures nationwide where many locals' lives have been impacted.

The Sri Lankan air force has continued to set up more of the state’s controversial coronavirus “quarantine centres” across the North-East, with at least 1,057 foreigners and locals being detained at these centres, in the wake of the COVID-19 coronavrius outbreak,

Despite protests by locals and politicians who expressed their concern in the setting up these centres in the North-East regions, the military has continued to establish quarantine centres in the area.

There has been an increased militarisation across the North-East with reporters in Vavuniya saying that buses are continuing to be subjected to military checks, and increased security.

See updates from across the North below.

A local from the village of Thavady in the North who tested positive for the coronavirus (COVID-19), has prompted a village-wide lockdown earlier today at around 8:30 am local time.

Full surveillance measures have been implemented by the Sri Lankan military forces with no one allowed to enter or leave the village.

The wife of a political prisoner, has handed a plea to the Mullaitivu District Secretariat, demanding the Sri Lanka president to release her husband and other political prisoners over concerns of them catching the coronavirus (COVID-19).

Nadesu Kuganathan, from Mullaitivu, undertook a rehabilitation programme before he was rearrested in 2013 and has been detained since, at the New Magazine Prison in Colombo.

Tamil political prisoners being detained at Anuradhapura prison were being threatened into joining a demonstration that ended with Sri Lankan security forces killing at least two inmates, said the leader of the Tamil National Peoples’ Front (TNPF) on Saturday.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi thanked Sri Lanka for its pledge to contribute $5 million towards SAARC (the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) COVID-19 emergency fund.

Sri Lankan security forces confirmed that they have arrested more than 1,700 people for alleged curfew violations, as part of attempts to tackle a coronavirus outbreak on the island.

Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Defence declared a total of 1,754 individuals arrested and 447 vehicles seized as part of an island wide clampdown.

A patient in Jaffna has tested positive for the COVID-19 coronavirus, after he reportedly spent time with a pastor who delivered a service at a church in the district. 

Sri Lanka’s president Gotabaya Rajapaksa announced that the island wide curfew he put in place this weekend, would be extended across the Northern Province, as security forces arrested hundreds of people for breaking strict curfew conditions.

Australia’s High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, met with the war crimes accused head of the Sri Lankan army to discuss coronavirus prevention strategies this week, as a military enforced curfew is in place across much of the island.

Authorities in Jaffna have urged worshippers who attended a service at the Philadelphia Missionary Church to immediately self-quarantine, after it was reported that the senior pastor has tested positive for the COVID-19 coronavirus infection.

Governor of the Northern Province P S M Charles told EconomyNext that around 150 people are thought to have attended the service, at the church in Ariyali, Jaffna.

At least one person has been killed and several others injured after Sri Lankan guards opened fire at inmates during a protest at the Anuradhapura prison earlier today.

By calling on a military accused of egregious rights abuses to lead a public health operation, the Sri Lankan government risks “exacerbating existing ethnic divides, endangering human rights and civil liberties even further, and furthering the violent militarization of the island,” wrote Tamil Guardian's editor-in-chief Thusiyan Nandakumar in the Polis Project this week.