Food shortages in Sri Lanka are so acute the UN estimates 70% of people are missing a meal every day and one in five are hungry
"The Sri Lankan government and the president are definitely to blame for the crisis we are in," he said.Akash asks why the political elite don't have to line up for fuel and food like the rest of the country, adding it's heart-breaking watching Sri Lankans suffer.
The food crisis is so acute that the United Nations estimates 70% of people are missing a meal every day and one in five are hungry. It's a shocking economic collapse for a country once regarded as a middle-income nation, with a strong agricultural sector and burgeoning tourist industry.Protesters occupied the Presidential palace in anger at the worsening economic crisis which has gripped the island nationThe capital Colombo has become a city of queues. Long and futile days are spent waiting in line for the basic necessities of life; gas, petrol, food.
We visited a queue for petrol where we last filmed six weeks ago. Then, people waited a few hours to fill up. Now it's a few days.Without petrol the drivers can't work and earn money, so their families go hungry.Driver Wijesinaha Sanjeewa says:"My life is very bad. I have no money. I have two children. Sometimes we eat once a day. Sometimes twice. This is my life."They can't even think about the future when all day is spent trying to beat insurmountable challenges.
With the odds stacked against it, it's hard to imagine how and when Sri Lanka will come out on the other side of this catastrophe.