Sri Lanka, which is struggling with its worst economic crisis in memory and mounting anti-government protests, announced on Tuesday a default on its $51 billion foreign debt.<\/p>\n
Here are five things to know about the South Asian island nation, which emerged from a brutal civil war in 2009.<\/p>\n
- Mostly Buddhist -<\/p>\n
The teardrop-shaped island off the southern tip of India is separated from the Indian sub-continent by a shallow strip of sea that is about 20 kilometres (12 miles) wide at its narrowest point.<\/p>\n
The island has a population of 21.9 million, according to the World Bank in 2020.<\/p>\n
Seventy percent are Buddhist, mostly ethnic Sinhalese. Around 12 percent are Hindus, mostly Tamils, who mainly live in the north and northeast of the island.<\/p>\n
Muslims make up 10 percent of the population and Christians about seven percent.<\/p>\n
- Formerly Ceylon -<\/p>\n
A strategic point on early maritime trade routes, the Indian Ocean island was controlled by Portugal (1505-1656) then the Netherlands (1656-1796) before becoming a British colony called Ceylon in 1815.<\/p>\n
The last Sinhalese king reigned from 1798 to 1815.<\/p>\n
After more than 130 years of British rule, the island gained independence in 1948.<\/p>\n
In 1972, it became a republic and adopted the name Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n
- Tamil Tigers -<\/p>\n
In 1972, Tamil rebels launched an armed struggle for a separate homeland that triggered a 37-year civil war estimated to have claimed up to 100,000 lives.<\/p>\n
Suicide bombers from the main insurgent group, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, killed former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991 and Sri Lankan president Ranasinghe Premadasa in 1993.<\/p>\n
After a ceasefire failed, the government crushed the Tigers in an all-out military offensive in 2009, killing their founder and leader Velupillai Prabhakaran.<\/p>\n
The operation was criticised for its brutality, with troops accused of killing at least 40,000 ethnic Tamil civilians.<\/p>\n
Today's president Gotabhaya Rajapaksa was the top defence official when the rebels were defeated under his brother -- former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, who is now prime minister.<\/p>\n
The United Nations Human Rights Council has demanded an independent investigation into possible war crimes, which Sri Lanka's government denies.<\/p>\n
- Jihadist attacks -<\/p>\n
Sri Lanka was about to mark a decade since the end of the conflict when its capital was struck by new terror attacks on Easter Sunday in 2019.<\/p>\n
A series of suicide bombings on three packed churches and three luxury hotels on April 21, 2019 killed 279 people, including at least 45 foreigners, and injured more than 500 people.<\/p>\n
The jihadist Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attacks, which reinforced resentment against the Muslim minority on the island.<\/p>\n
- Debt default -<\/p>\n
The Easter bombings battered the paradise island's crucial tourism industry and the Covid-19 pandemic made things worse, drying up remittances from abroad.<\/p>\n
The government imposed drastic currency restrictions and banned numerous imports to try to conserve its dwindling foreign currency reserves and use them to service its debt.<\/p>\n
But the resulting food and fuel shortages, combined with long electricity blackouts, sent demonstrators into the streets calling for the government to resign.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, the finance ministry announced it was suspending payments on its $51 billion external debt as a \"last resort\" ahead of talks with the International Monetary Fund on a bailout.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sri Lanka, which is struggling with its worst economic crisis in memory and mounting anti-government protests, announced on Tuesday a default on its $51 billion foreign debt. Here are five things to know about the South Asian island nation, which emerged from a brutal civil war in 2009. - Mostly Buddhist - The teardrop-shaped island […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553,1],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-90145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed","category-non-classifiee"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n