Colombo: Amid the ongoing economic crisis, the Sri Lankan president has declared a state of emergency on Friday giving sweeping powers to security forces.
This comes a day after hundreds of protestors attempted to storm his house in anger over an unprecedented economic crisis.
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa invoked the 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.
The emergency was declared for the “protection of public order and the maintenance of supplies and services essential to the life of the community,” Rajapaksa said in a proclamation.
The nation of 22 million is facing severe shortages of essentials, sharp price rises and crippling power cuts in its most painful downturn since independence from Britain in 1948.
Here’s The Lankan Crisis in 10 Points:
- Sri Lanka’s economy has been in a free fall since the COVID-19 pandemic due to the crash of the tourism sector.
- Sri Lanka’s currency has been also devalued by almost SLR 90 against the US dollar since March 8.
- Buses in Colombo sit idle while some hospitals have suspended routine surgeries.
- Exams were postponed this month because schools ran out of paper.
- Island nations facing a foreign exchange shortage which has led to a fuel, power and gas shortage and have sought the assistance of friendly countries for economic assistance.
- India provided more than $500 million in foreign currency swaps to strengthen Sri Lanka’s foreign reserves, taking the total up to $900 million.
- India also extended the repayment time frame for the $500 million debt of Sri Lanka under the Asian Clearance Arbitration.
- More recently on March 17, Sri Lanka signed a $1 billion credit line deal with India for the procurement of food, medicines and other essential items during Sri Lankan Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksha’s two-day visit to India.
- The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Friday recommended a number of measures, including tax hikes, for macroeconomic stability in Sri Lanka and also to mitigate adverse impacts on the vulnerable and the poor.
- Sri Lanka’s Finance Minister Basil Rajapakse is scheduled to travel to Washington in April in order to seek IMF assistance to deal with the country’s economic crisis.