As we mark 30 years since the Jaffna exodus, which led to over half a million Tamil men, women and children fleeing their homes, we look back at press coverage from the time.

On this day 30 years ago, over half a million Tamil men, women and children fled their homes in Jaffna as the Sri Lankan military launched a military offensive to capture the peninsula, under the leadership of then president Chandrika Kumaratunga.

Sinhala Buddhist monk, Seelarathane Thero, and leader of the Sinhala- nationalist political party, Jana Setha Peramuna, has publicly criticized the National People’s Power (NPP) government, claiming that the recent announcement permitting Muslim nurses to dress in accordance with their cultural and religious identity is an attempt to “erase Sinhala culture”.

Fears are mounting of mass killings in the city of el-Fasher after the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) captured it from government forces. 

In a address on Monday evening, Sudan's military chief Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan said he had approved the withdrawal of troops in response to the "systematic destruction and killing of civilians".

UNICEF's report Weathering the Future: The Growing Crisis of Child Displacement in South Asia detailed that an estimated 4.6 per cent of its under-18 population was displaced between 2016 to 2022 due to climatic disaster events. Trincomalee, Batticaloa, and Mullaitivu were highlighted as 'very high-risk' areas for flooding. 

A Sri Lankan professor at a military university has analysed the Israeli influence behind Sri Lanka’s Sinhala settlement policies during the late 20th century, particularly in the Mahaweli Development Project — the island’s largest post-independence scheme. 

Members of the Methodist Church held a symbolic protest in Chemmani on Tuesday, calling for justice for the victims of the Chemmani massacre.

Eighty-three Pulmoddai Mineral Sands Corporation employees in Trincomalee continue protesting over unpaid wages for more than 15 months

The National People’s Power (NPP) government has reiterated its opposition to an international investigation into war crimes in Sri Lanka, with Sri Lankan Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya reaffirming the state’s position in parliament last week.