Sri Lankan president Gotabaya Rajapaksa invoked tough law on Friday amid protests over an unprecedented economic crisis.
In a statement, he mentioned that the state of emergency was declared for “protection of public order and maintenance of supplies and essential services.”
In the wake of this state of emergency, in the western province, the authorities have reimposed a nighttime curfew on Friday.
Background
Colombo is experiencing a severe economic crisis. In March, Colombo’s inflation rate hit 18.7 percent, according to official data released on Friday.
Having to deal with power outages lasting half a day or at times even more than that, lack of essential food and medicine supply and diesel shortages have sparked outrage across the nation, resulting in protests at the empty pumps.
Additionally, the authorities have announced a 13-hour power outage every day from Thursday on, and hospitals are running out of life-saving medicines, halting routine surgery.
How climate change adds to the danger?
More than 40 percent of the electricity is generated from hydropower plants, however, nearly all of the reservoirs were running dangerously low as there had been no rains, according to officials cited by Aljazeera.
Protests
A peaceful protest was started outside President Rajapaska’s house, demanding him to step down. Slogans like “Lunatic -Lunatic go home,” were chanted, after which the police fired tear gas and used water cannons.
The crowd turned violent resulting in at least two dozen police personnel being reportedly injured during the clashes between demonstrators and police, according to an official cited by Reuters news agency.