The United Nations has urged Sri Lanka to deliver concrete results after long-running investigations into the 2019 Easter Sunday suicide bombings that killed 279 people, including 45 foreigners.
The UN’s top envoy to the country, Marc-Andre Franche, said on Tuesday that survivors and families of victims were still waiting for answers, despite multiple probes and renewed political pledges following the formation of a new government in September 2024.
“Public commitments by the government to pursue justice are important and must be welcomed,” he said, as the nation marked seven years since the bombings on Tuesday.
“But what matters now is results,” he said at a remembrance service in Colombo.
Daesh-linked bombers struck three churches and three hotels on April 21 2019, in what was widely seen as the island’s deadlies attacks on civilians since the end of civil war in 2009.
Several investigations, including a parliamentary probe, have pointed to the involvement of state intelligence units.
In October 2021, Sri Lanka’s state prosecutor indicted 25 people, accusing them of being co-conspirators in the bombings. The case is ongoing.
Police enquiries took a new turn in February with the arrest of the former head of the State Intelligence Service, retired army major general Suresh Sallay, who is accused of aiding and abetting the attackers.
Sallay has denied the allegations and is being held under the Prevention of Terrorism Act.
