Sri Lanka President declares state of emergency
mode1
May 7, 2022 12:41
934
0
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa Friday declared a state of emergency giving security forces sweeping powers for the second time in five weeks to deal with escalating anti-government protests.
A spokesman for the president said he invoked the tough laws to "ensure public order" after trade unions staged a nationwide strike Friday demanding his resignation over a worsening economic crisis.
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has insisted he will not step down despite escalating demonstrations across the island, including a protest that has been camped outside his seafront office for nearly a month.
Months of blackouts and acute shortages of food, fuel and pharmaceuticals have caused widespread suffering across the South Asian island nation of 22 million people. Public anger has sparked sustained protests demanding the government's resignation over its mismanagement of the crisis, Sri Lanka's worst since independence in 1948.
