Holding banners and black flags, hundreds of relatives of disappeared Tamils marched in the northern Sri Lankan town of Kilinochchi demanding justice and accountability

Protesters associated with the North-East Association of Relatives of Enforced Disappearances (ARED) demonstrated outside the UN office in Colombo and demanded an international probe to establish the whereabouts of their missing relatives

Last week, family members of disappeared persons marked the 2000th day of their struggle for justice. Tens of thousands of people were abducted during the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka and were never heard from again

Meanwhile, appeals for justice continue after the assault on protestors at the Galle Face site in Colombo in which around 50 people were injured and tents were torn down

With a rise in surveillance, intimidation and harassment by the state apparatus, families of victims of enforced disappearance in Sri Lanka are facing increasing threats, as per rights groups

Following the civil war in the country, hundreds of Tamil families have been struggling for years to establish the fate of those who disappeared during the conflict

Thousands of Tamils who had been categorized as ‘disappeared’ have now been declared dead by the Sri Lankan authorities . This is the first such admission by the Sri Lankan government since the civil war in the country ended in 2009

The appointment Gotabaya Rajapaksa as Sri Lankan president has further widened ethnic tensions in the country, though it remains to be seen to what degree

The government claims the National Thowheeth Jamaath is responsible for the attacks on Easter, which killed over 300 people. However, it also admits that such a small group could not have carried out the attacks on its own

Families of tens of thousands of Tamils are still waiting for justice for the mass atrocities committed by the Sri Lankan government during the civil war that lasted 26 years

The vote was a huge blow for president Maithripala Sirisena and Rajapaksa, who was appointed prime minister in a move that has been termed unconstitutional