Police imposed a curfew in Sri Lanka’s capital and surrounding areas on Friday, a day before a planned protest demanding the country’s president and prime minister resign over an economic crisis that has caused severe shortages of essential supplies and disrupted people’s livelihoods.
Critics say President Gotabaya Rajapaksa is responsible for the economic crisis, the worst since the country's independence in 1948, and that Ranil Wickremesinghe, who became prime minister two months ago promising to end the shortages, has not delivered on his pledge.
