Sri Lanka's civil war, fought from 1983 to 2009 between government forces and the LTTE (Tamil Tigers) seeking an independent Tamil state in the north and east, caused repeated waves of displacement among the mostly Tamil population of those regions, as well as significant Sinhalese and Muslim displacement. Over the course of the war, an estimated 800,000 to over a million people were displaced at various points, and roughly 100,000–150,000 Tamils fled as refugees to Tamil Nadu, India. The war's final months in early 2009 saw intense fighting in a shrinking government-declared 'no-fire zone' in the north, displacing an estimated 280,000–300,000 civilians and causing a disputed number of civilian deaths. The conflict ended in May 2009 with the LTTE's military defeat.
A 26-year civil war between the Sri Lankan government and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), fighting for an independent Tamil state in the north and east, caused mass displacement and heavy civilian casualties, especially in the war's final 2009 offensive
The 1981 census recorded about 1.11 million in the Northern Province and 0.98 million in the Eastern Province, out of a national population of 14.85 million; Sri Lankan Tamils numbered 1.89 million nationally and Indian Tamils 819,000. No census could be held in the north and east between 1981 and 2011, so wartime population figures are estimates.
UN figures widely cited put the 26-year war's toll at 80,000–100,000. For the final months of 2009 alone, the UN Secretary-General's Panel of Experts estimated 'as many as 40,000 civilians died', a UN real-time on-ground survey recorded 7,721 civilians killed between August 2008 and 13 May 2009, and the Sri Lankan government's own enumeration counted under 7,000 dead and 2,500 missing; the Bishop of Mannar cited local population records leaving roughly 140,000 unaccounted for. The government and its supporters favour the low end and reject the Panel's estimate; Tamil diaspora organisations and several UN sources favour the high end (all these figures are compared in the International Crisis Group's account).
The UN Panel of Experts (2011) documented killing of civilians by widespread shelling and denial of humanitarian assistance by government forces and the LTTE's use of civilians as human shields, shooting of those who fled and recruitment of children, while OHCHR's 2015 investigation (OISL) documented enforced disappearances, sexual violence and arbitrary detention by security forces.
Sri Lanka