A 63-year-old truck driver died on the fifth day waiting to refuel. A mother threw her five-year-old son into the Kelani River and attempted suicide. Food prices are rising and there is a shortage of medicines. The opposition warns of the danger of a civil war in a climate of growing conflict.
Colombo (AsiaNews) – Another victim, the tenth, among the people who queue for days at service stations, waiting in vain to be able to refuel. And the increasingly concrete risk that the generalized and widespread discontent throughout the country due to the economic crisis will acquire increasingly violent characteristics and trigger conflicts in the streets. Sri Lanka is experiencing a dramatic situation and, at least for now, there are no prospects for change on the horizon.
Police sources report that on June 22 a 63-year-old truck driver, who had been waiting for five days to refuel in Anguruwatota, Western province, died inside his vehicle. This is the 10th victim among hundreds of thousands of people queuing at distributors, in a country loaded with debt and facing the worst economic crisis since the proclamation of independence.
The deceased persons were between 43 and 84 years old; most deaths were due to cardiac arrest. Last week a 53-year-old man died of a heart attack in line at a gas station in the capital. Also last week, a mother in despair over her family’s financial situation threw her five-year-old son into the Kelani River (in Colombo) and attempted suicide. The child died, while her mother survived.
With a population of 22 million and a foreign debt of nearly €50 billion, Sri Lanka faces severe fuel shortages, soaring food prices and medicine shortages. To this is added the inability of the central bank to open credit channels that allow the importation of fuel.
With a view to saving, the Ministry of Public Administration declared that Friday will be a holiday for the next three months; The rule also applies to schools, to alleviate the burden of transportation in a sector where only 20% of vehicles are operational due to lack of fuel. Tension is high and part of the ruling class does not rule out the danger of clashes and violence. Vasudeva Nanayakkara, leader of the Democratic Left Front, warns of the risk of civil war in a climate of growing conflict.
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