Sri Lanka students mob PM’s home over economic crisis

Thousands of Sri Lankan university students mobbed Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa’s domestic on Sunday annoying his resignation over the island kingdom’s worsening economic crisis.

Months of lengthy blackouts, file inflation, and acute meal and fuel shortages have sparked growing public discontent in Sri Lanka, which is managing its worst financial downturn when you consider its independence in 1948.

Sunday’s protest saw student leaders scale the fence of Rajapaksa’s compound in Colombo after police erected barricades on various roads across the capital to stop them from linking up with demonstrators elsewhere.

“You can block the road, but can’t stop our struggle until the entire government goes home,” one unidentified student leader said while standing on top of the walls.

Police said Rajapaksa, the head of Sri Lanka’s ruling clan, was not on the premises at the time and the crowd left peacefully.

For more than two weeks, thousands of protesters have been camped daily outside the seafront office of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa — Mahinda’s younger brother — demanding for the pair to step down.

Nationwide demonstrations have seen crowds attempt to storm the homes and offices of government figures.

This week a man was shot dead when police fired on a road blockade in the central town of Rambukkana — the first fatality since protests last month.

Sri Lanka’s economic collapse began to be felt after the coronavirus pandemic torpedoed vital revenue from tourism and remittances.

The united states of America are unable to finance crucial imports, which has left rice, milk powder, sugar, wheat flour, and prescribed drugs in quick supply, even as runaway inflation has worsened hardships.

Utilities unable to pay for gas have imposed lengthy day-by-day blackouts to ration strength, while long strains snake around carrier stations every morning as human beings queue for scant resources of petrol and kerosene.

Finance minister Ali Sabry, who is in Washington to barter an International Monetary Fund bailout, warned Friday that the monetary situation in Sri Lanka will possibly become worse even in addition.