A newly appointed Sri Lankan minister declared that embattled president Gotabaya Rajapaksa will not resign “under any circumstances” in a defiant address to parliament as protests continued to rumble across the South.

Addressing parliament this morning, Highways Minister Johnston Fernando said that “6.9 million people voted for the president".

"As a government, we are clearly saying the president will not resign under any circumstances,” he continued. “We will face this."

The United Nations human rights office warned Sri Lanka that it was “closely following developments” and reiterated that the island’s “drift towards militarisation and the weakening of institutional checks and balances” have left it unable to effectively deal with the economic and political crises.

#NDTVExclusive | "Without the line of credit from India, I think people would be starving and dying of starvation, the entire country would have come to a standstill without fuel," says Shanakiyan Rasamanickam (@ShanakiyanR), MP, ITAK, Sri Lanka, on the #SriLankaEconomicCrisis. pic.twitter.com/PWMvEKOMwy

The heads of Sri Lanka’s army and police force publically clashed today, after the war-crimes accused military head Shavendra Silva demanded an inquiry into two Sri Lankan police officers, after they stopped a group of masked and armed soldiers on unmarked motorbikes near protests outside parliament. 

A statement released by the Army said,

Sri Lanka’s embattled president Gotabaya Rajapaksa revoked a state of emergency that he had declared, as lawmakers from the ruling collation sat independently in parliament today following more protests across the South.

Late on Tuesday evening, Rajapaksa issued a gazette revoking the state of emergency, effective from midnight on April 5.

Responding to the crisis which has engulfed Sri Lanka, Mario Arulthas, an advisor to People for Equality and Relief in Lanka (PEARL), stresses that for a “more just stable and prosperous island”, it is not the President that needs to go but the deeply entrenched ethnocratic state.

As anti-government protests engulfed the south of Sri Lanka this week, Tamil students at the University of Jaffna have expressed their frustrations at how Sinhalese students had failed to join them at previous protests as they joined a rally through the Northern city on Monday.

Ali Sabry tendered his resignation this morning, a day after being appointed as Finance Minister by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa amidst Sri Lanka's national crisis. 

Sabry, a long time ally of Rajapaksa, was one of the four new Ministers appointed yesterday after the entire Cabinet, excluding Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, resigned over the weekend. 

Every voice matters as Sri Lanka stands at a crucial point in its history. I encourage protesters to remain peaceful, using their voices & solidarity to advocate for change. And I encourage the government to draw on SL’s best minds to identify and implement solutions quickly.

The Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) met with the Inspector General of Police, Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (TRCSL) Chairman, the Ministry of Defence, State Ministry of Defence Secretary-General, and Ministry of Mass Media Secretary for a special meeting concerning human rights issues, as protest continue across the south of the island.