Sri Lankan Economic Crisis Worsens

The Sri Lankan economic crisis is getting worse. Its Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa has finally resigned after months of protest. ``

• Sri Lanka has been going through one of its worst economic crises since independence in 1948. While the pandemic accelerated it, Sri Lanka’s economy was in doldrums much before.
• Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa tweeted that he had handed in his resignation. He and his brother, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, are being blamed for the current Sri Lankan crisis.
• Soon after his resignation, thousands of troops and police were deployed all over the country. A curfew was also imposed after Rajapaksa’s supporters attacking protestors led to many casualties.
• The violence against peaceful demonstrators angered many and there have been reports of more than a dozen homes of Rajapaksa and his followers being torched by angry mobs.
• President Gotabaya Rajapaksa still remains in power and has repeatedly refused to step down, a fact that further angers the protesting crowds who hold him responsible for mismanaging the economy.
• A team from the International Monetary Fund has begun work with officials in Sri Lanka on an economic bailout which will include a tough package of reforms.