Decryption

Sri Lanka on the brink

Audio 7:30 p.m.

A Sri Lankan student demanding the resignation of President Rajapaksa, in the middle of the police in Colombo, this Friday, April 8, 2022. AP - Eranga Jayawardena

By: Anne Corpet Follow

1 min

Sri Lanka on Thursday (April 21, 2022) called on the army to reinforce security before the funeral of a protester, the first death in the protest that has shaken the country for several weeks.

The country is in the grip of a serious economic crisis, suffers from shortages of essential products, and is in dire need of dollars to finance their importation.  

Advertisement

It announced, on April 12, 2022, to default on its external debt of 51 billion dollars.

The population has been demonstrating its anger every day throughout the island for several weeks, and is calling on President Rajapaksa to resign.

Where does this crisis, on an unprecedented scale since independence in 1948, come from?

Can the country's authorities be held responsible?

Does this popular movement risk degenerating into a political crisis?

These are the questions we are going to try to answer today in Décryptage with our guest 

geographer and researcher at the Center for Studies on India and South Asia and its Diaspora in Montreal, and member of studies on India and South Asia from CEAIS, specialist in Sri Lanka.  

Newsletter

Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox

I subscribe

Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application

google-play-badge_EN

• Sri Lanka

On the same subject

Sri Lanka crisis: Protests continue amid fuel shortage

Rising fuel prices and ministerial reshuffle in a Sri Lanka in deep crisis

Crisis in Sri Lanka: financial markets will not reopen this week