Sri Lanka facing humanitarian disaster amid civil unrest as economic crisis deepens

Protests continued in Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo on April 6, 2022, as demonstrators called for the resignation of the country’s president Gotabaya Rajapaksa over the country’s economic crisis. Dozens of lawmakers walked out of Rajapaksa’s ruling coalition on April 5, leaving his government in a minority. The country’s doctors and clergy also took to the streets, as the island nation is experiencing shortages of essential items such as food, oil and medicine, amid warnings from officials of an impending health and humanitarian disaster.