Sri Lanka economic crisis: Violent protest outside President's house, nation runs out of diesel | Top points

Sri Lanka news: Sri Lanka’s worst economic crisis is now resulting in violent protests. As the crisis deepens, the nation is running out of resources. Here's a look at the latest developments and how the island nation reached this point.

As Sri Lanka’s worst economic crisis in decades brought more power cuts and gloom, people in the country are staring at a very bleak future. The country ran out of diesel on Thursday and the island nation of 22 million people is struggling with rolling power cuts for up to 13 hours a day as the government is unable to make payments for fuel imports because of a lack of foreign exchange.

Sri Lankans are now blaming the government for the worst economic crisis since its Independence in 1948.

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Here are the latest developments:

1. Hundreds of protesters on Thursday night marched along dark streets and gathered outside President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s house in capital Colombo to stage a protest. They even tried to storm his residence but were stopped by armed soldiers. The police managed to disperse the crowd using tear gas and water cannons. A curfew has now been imposed in Colombo.

2. On Wednesday, March 30, Sri Lanka began imposing record nationwide 10-hour daily power cuts, up from the seven-hour power outage announced in the first week of March, as it ran out of hydroelectricity. This soon, increased to 13 hours of total blackout as the country ran out of diesel as well.

3. India has reportedly agreed to send aid of 40,000 tonnes of diesel. This will be in addition to the USD 500 million credit line for buying fuels India offered earlier this year. Sri Lanka imports 100% of its petroleum needs.