KATHMANDU: Sri Lanka’s President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has said that more than 20,000 people who disappeared during the country’s civil war are dead.

President Rajapaksa made the remark for the first time in a meeting with a UN envoy in the capital, Colombo, shattering the hopes of the kin of the disappeared.

Hundreds of families of the missing had been attending rallies demanding to know where their loved ones were.

Many have held out hope that their relatives were still alive and in the hands of the security forces.

Meanwhile, a statement from his office said steps would be taken to issue death certificates for the missing.

(With inputs from Agencies)