Sri Lanka appoints 9 new cabinet members, closes schools, limits work amid fuel shortage

Agencies | Colombo  

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Sri Lanka appointed nine new cabinet members on Friday, among them ministers for the critical portfolios of health, trade and tourism, as the island nation battles its worst economic crisis in history.

“Nine cabinet ministers of the new all-party government took their oaths before President Gotabaya Rajapaksa,” a presidential news statement said.

Veteran politician Ranil Wickremesinghe took over as prime minister this month to form a new cabinet after the president’s elder brother, Mahinda Rajapaksa, resigned from the job.

Schools closed, limits work amid fuel shortage

Sri Lankan authorities on Friday closed schools and asked public officials not to come to work in a desperate move to prepare for an acute fuel shortage that is expected to last days amid the nation’s worst economic crisis in decades.

The Public Administration Ministry asked the public officials — except for those who maintain essential services — not to come to work on Friday “in a view of current fuel shortage and issues in transport facilities” across the country.

State- and government-approved private schools also closed Friday amid the worsening fuel shortage, with thousands of people waiting in queues at fuel stations across the country for days at a time.

Sri Lanka is now almost without gasoline and faces an acute shortage of other fuels as well.

The government has been struggling to find money to pay for the importation of fuel, gas and other essentials in recent months as the Indian Ocean island nation is on the brink of bankruptcy.

Its economic woes have brought on a political crisis, with the government facing widespread protests and unrest.

For months, Sri Lankans have endured long lines to buy those essentials, most of which come from abroad. Shortages of hard currency have also hindered imports of raw materials for manufacturing and worsened inflation.

Protesters blocked main roads to demand gas and fuel, and television stations showed people in some areas fighting over limited stocks.

Authorities have announced countrywide power cuts of up to four hours a day because they can’t supply enough fuel to power generating stations.

Sri Lanka has suspended repayment of about $7 billion in foreign loans due this year out of $25 billion to be repaid by 2026. The country’s total foreign debt is $51 billion. The finance ministry says the country currently has only $25 million in usable foreign reserves.

Protesters have occupied the entrance to the president’s office for more than a month, calling for President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to resign.

Months of anti-government rallies have led to the near-dismantling of the once-powerful ruling family, with one of the president’s brothers resigning as prime minister, and other siblings and a nephew leaving their Cabinet posts. Protesters accuse the Rajapaksas of triggering the crisis through corruption and misrule.

Sri Lanka’s new Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said Monday that about $75 billion is needed urgently to help provide essential items, but the country’s treasury is struggling to find even $1 billion.

Attacks by Rajapaksa’s supporters on protesters last week sparked nationwide violence that left nine people — including a lawmaker — dead, and more than 200 injured. Homes of lawmakers and their supporters were burned down.