Sri Lanka declares state of emergency after unrest

Colombo, Apr 01: Sri Lanka President Gotabaya Rajapaksa issued a Gazette Extraordinary declaring a public Emergency in Sri Lanka with effect from April 1, 2022.

According to AFP, Rajapaksa said he believed there was a "public emergency in Sri Lanka" that necessitated invoking tough laws that give security wide authority to arrest and detain suspects.

Sri Lanka is currently reeling under a severe foreign exchange crisis with falling reserves and the government is unable to foot the bill for essential imports. The Island country is on the verge of bankruptcy.

Sri Lankan government declared an economic emergency in 2021 in view of rising food prices, a depreciating currency, and rapidly depleting forex reserves.

The situation reached to an extent where President Gotabaya Rajapaksa called in the army to manage the crisis by rationing the supply of various essential goods.

According to the World Bank estimates, 5 lakh people in Sri Lanka have fallen below the poverty line since the pandemic struck, which it described as a "huge setback equivalent to five years' worth of progress".

The police have reportedly arrested 54 including a woman who was involved in the protests outside the residence of Sri Lankan President Gotabaya on Thursday.

A curfew briefly imposed in most parts of Colombo city after hundreds of protesters gathered outside the residence of Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa demanding his resignation for failing to address the worst economic crisis in the island nation.

In the Kelaniya area, protesters had blocked the main Colombo-Kandy road. Sri Lanka is currently experiencing its worst economic crisis in history. With long lines for fuel, cooking gas, essentials in short supply and long hours of power cuts the public has been suffering for weeks.

Rajapaksa has defended his government's actions, saying the foreign exchange crisis was not his making and the economic downturn was largely pandemic driven where the island's tourism revenue and inward remittances waning.