Sri Lankans protest against food, fuel shortages
STORY: “There is a massive economic crisis in the country,” said 42-year-old Sanjeeva Perera, one of the protesters who took the streets.
“The people don’t have food, fuel and even if we have money we can’t buy what we want. The rulers don’t care that people are suffering.”
One other protester, Prasad Colombage, said the crisis could lead to unrest in the country.
“People are not even eating two of the three meals a day. They just eat one meal. We don’t know when this problem will end,” the 45-year-old protester said.
Earlier on Tuesday (March 22), Sri Lanka ordered its military to post soldiers at hundreds of gas stations to help distribute fuel after a sudden rise in prices of key commodities, and the accompanying shortages forced tens of thousands of people to queue for hours.
The Indian Ocean island nation is battling a foreign exchange crisis that forced the devaluation of its currency and hit payments for essential imports such as food, medicine, and fuel, prompting the government to approach the IMF.
