Sri Lanka declares state of emergency over food shortages | DW News

Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaska declared a state of emergency over food shortages as banks ran out of foreign exchange to finance imports. He named a top army officer as “Commissioner General of Essential Services“ to coordinate the limited supply of paddy, rice, sugar and other groceries. Long queues have formed outside stores and supermarkets. Many shelves are already empty. Milk powder and cooking oil are virtually impossible to get. People have also had to wait for hours to fill their motorbikes, rickshaws and cars with gasoline. The energy minister has appealed to motorists to use fuel sparingly, warning that it could be rationed by the end of the year unless consumption was reduced. The Asian country is suffering from the economic fallout of the pandemic. The economy shrank 3.6 percent last year. And even though growth has returned, the money shortage means that the government cannot even buy enough medicine to supply its hospitals. Sri Lanka has received 787 Mmillion dollars from the Interna