Tear gas, water cannon fired at Sri Lanka protesters
STORY: Police fired tear gas and water cannon at the demonstrators who were protesting for a sixth consecutive day. Some holding signs and chanting “Gota, go home”. The protesters are calling for President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to resign as food and fuel shortages worsen due to an economic crisis in the country.
Two politicians from Samagi Jana Balawegaya, an opposition alliance, said on Friday that they were collecting signatures to bring a no-confidence motion against the government. Rajapaksa said through his chief whip on Wednesday that he would not be resigning.
Rajapaksa is running his administration with only a handful of ministers after his entire cabinet resigned this week, while the opposition and even some coalition partners rejected calls for a unity government to deal with the worst crisis in decades.
Earlier on Friday, nearly two dozen associations, representing industries that collectively employ a fifth of the country's 22 million people, together urged the government to quickly seek financial help from the IMF, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
Sri Lanka's foreign exchange reserves have plunged some 70% in the past two years, hitting $1.93 billion at the end of March.
Inflation, meanwhile, has rocketed to its highest level in more than a decade.
