Damaged bus after it was set on fire by
demonstrators in Colombo, Sri Lanka April 1, 2022. (Reuters)
Amid protests over the country’s worst economic
crisis in decades, Sri Lanka government has imposed a curfew across the country
from Saturday 6pm to Monday 6 am.
Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa also
declared a nationwide public emergency late on Friday. The President invoked
tough laws allowing the military to arrest and detain suspects for long periods
without trial, as demonstrations calling for his ouster spread across the South
Asian nation.
Meanwhile, Lanka IOC, the subsidiary of
Indian Oil Corporation in Sri Lanka, said Friday it would supply 6,000 MT of
fuel to ease the power shortages. On Saturday, Indian traders said they were in
the process of shipping 40,000 tonnes of rice to Sri Lanka, according to a
report in Reuters.
Anger against Rajapaksa’s handling of a deepening economic crisis in the island nation of 22 million people spiraled into violence late on Thursday, as hundreds of protesters clashed with police for several hours.
A severe shortage of foreign currency has left Rajapaksa’s government unable to pay for essential imports, including fuel, leading to debilitating power cuts lasting up to 13 hours.
No comments:
Post a Comment