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. 

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>

The United Kingdom is providing £49 million of funding for a British firm to build 250 bridges in rural parts of Sri Lanka.

The project has been designed to accelerate Sri Lanka’s development through improvements in its rural transport infrastructure, UK Export Finance (UKEF) said in a press release.

The department claims that families and businesses would benefit directly from the project thanks to reduced distance to reach essential services and lower transport costs.

<p>Sri Lankan military forces are reported to have released lands in different districts across the North-East this year, although they had already failed to meet the Sri Lankan president’s highly publicised deadline to release all occupied lands by December 31, 2018.</p> <p>On January 22, the Sri Lankan army announced it had released 40.74 acres of state land and 13.64 acres of private land in Vavuniya.</p>

<p>A Tamil mother of two was released on bail this week after being imprisoned for four years.&nbsp;</p> <p>The release of the 31-year-old political prisoner came after repeated intiatives by the Mannar Citizens' Committee calling for the release of the woman, whose family live below the poverty line.&nbsp;</p>

<p>The Sri Lankan government has made “empty promises” on transitional justice and its willingness to tackle impunity, which is “evidenced by a litany of failures”, write Yasmin Sooka and Frances Harrison for the London School of Economics’ South Asia blog this week.</p>

The history of the Tamil people in the island of Sri Lanka after Western colonisation is a history of oppression by the chauvinist Sinhala-Buddhist state. Because of strength and resilience, the Tamil people acted against this oppression with resistance. This goes from peaceful protest for equal rights to a militant fight for a separate state. Tens of thousands of Tamil civilians and combatants lost their lives throughout the armed conflict.

A former Northern Provincial Council (NPC) minister has written to Vavuniya’s government agent (GA), querying how a Buddha statue was allowed to be placed at an archaeological site in the district.

A Tamil political activist has been remanded by a Sri Lankan court over a hartal in protest at the appointment of former UPFA MP Hizbullah as governor of the Eastern Province last month.

Kanapathipillai Mohan, who heads the Thamizh Unarvaalar Amaippu, has had an order issued against him by the Eravur Circuit Magistrate Court, holding him on remand until February 13.

<p>Sri Lanka is facing delays in receiving a $300 million (USD) loan offered by the Bank of China, Reuters reports.</p> <p>The loan was due to be released before the end of January but is now unlikely to be finalised until later this month.</p>

Students from the University of Jaffna joined an event held by the US Consulate in Chennai to mark Black History Month.

The Jaffna students joined in with the event, a screening of a documentary on black civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr, via video conference.