Police imposed a curfew in Sri Lanka’s capital and surrounding areas on Friday, a day before a planned protest demanding the country’s president and prime minister resign over an economic crisis that has caused severe shortages of essential supplies and disrupted people’s livelihoods.
Critics say President Gotabaya Rajapaksa is responsible for the economic crisis, the worst since the country's independence in 1948, and that Ranil Wickremesinghe, who became prime minister two months ago promising to end the shortages, has not delivered on his pledge.
Civic and opposition activists have announced that thousands of people will gather in Colombo on Saturday for a mass protest. Police said the curfew, beginning at 9 p.m. Friday, will continue until further notice in Colombo and its suburbs.
Thousands of students wearing black clothes and holding black flags also marched in Colombo on Friday demanding that Rajapaksa and Wickremesinghe step down. They shouted anti-government slogans and carried banners reading “Enough — now go.”
Sri Lanka is nearly bankrupt and has suspended repayments of $7 billion in foreign debt due this year. It must pay back more than $5 billion every year until 2026. Its foreign reserves are nearly gone and it is unable to import food, fuel, cooking gas and medicines.
A lack of fuel to run power stations has resulted in long daily power cuts. People must stand in lines for hours to buy fuel and gas, and the country has survived mostly on credit lines extended by neighboring India to buy fuel and other essentials.
With the economic crisis, inflation has spiked and prices of essentials have soared, dealing a severe blow to poor and vulnerable groups.
Due to the fuel and power shortages, schools have been shut for weeks and the government has asked state employees other than those in essential services to work from home.
The country is negotiating with the International Monetary Fund on a bailout package, but Wickremesinghe said this week that the negotiations are difficult because Sri Lanka is effectively bankrupt. He earlier said the country’s economy had “collapsed.”
The economic crisis has triggered a political upheaval, with widespread anti-government protests. Protesters have blocked main roads to demand fuel, and people in some areas have fought over limited stocks.
In Colombo, protesters have been occupying the entrance to the president’s office for nearly three months to demand his resignation. They accuse him and his powerful family, which includes several siblings who until recently held Cabinet positions, of precipitating the crisis through corruption and misrule.
Months of protests have nearly dismantled the Rajapaksa political dynasty that has ruled Sri Lanka for most of the past two decades.
One of Rajapaksa’s brothers resigned as prime minister last month, and two other brothers and a nephew quit their Cabinet posts earlier.
President Rajapaksa has admitted he did not take steps to forestall the economic collapse early enough, but has refused to leave office. It is nearly impossible to oust presidents under the constitution unless they resign on their own accord.
