![Sri Lanka's President Gotabaya Rajapaksa gestures while addressing the nation at the presidential swearing-in ceremony in Anuradhapura on November 18, 2019 [File: Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/5a251b5461e64efab56ad3b54abb34ce_18.jpeg?resize=270%2C180)
The hardline approach of the new president and a failed reconciliation process threaten to stir ethnic tensions.
![Sri Lankan soldiers stand guard in front of the St Anthony's Shrine a day after it was bombed in Colombo, Sri Lanka, April 22, 2019 [AP/Eranga Jayawardena]
[Daylife]](/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/f768c775e4de4634a5a140407c852b1c_18.jpeg?resize=270%2C180)
The bombings will fuel inter-communal tensions in Sri Lanka, which still struggles with the legacy of its civil war.
![A man walks past a poster of Sri Lanka's newly appointed Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and President Maithripala Sirisena on a main road in Colombo, Sri Lanka October 28, 2018 [Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/a518d81e8930400aac2d3dac582b45d9_18.jpeg?resize=270%2C180)
Following the former president’s return to power, international community needs to take urgent action to protect Tamils.