India ships rice, other essentials to crisis-hit Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka received a first shipment of a $16 million humanitarian aid package from neighboring India to help mitigate severe shortages caused by the country’s devastating economic crisis

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka -- Sri Lanka received a first consignment of a $16 million humanitarian aid package from neighboring India to help mitigate severe shortages caused by the country’s worst economic crisis in recent memory.

Gopal Baglay, the Indian envoy to Sri Lanka, delivered the donation from the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu to Sri Lanka's Foreign Minister Gamini Peiris late Sunday. The goods, worth $5.6 million, include rice, milk powder and essential medicines.

They will be distributed among vulnerable families in different parts of the country, the Indian Embassy said in a statement.

Sri Lanka is near bankruptcy and has severe shortages of essentials from food, fuel, medicines and cooking gas to toilet paper and matchsticks. For months, people have been forced to stay in long lines to buy the limited stocks.