UN: In Sri Lanka, children ‘go to bed hungry’

Children in Sri Lanka “go to bed hungry”, the director of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) South Asia department, George Laria-Adjei, said yesterday.

“The children of Sri Lanka go to bed hungry, not knowing what tomorrow will bring, if they will be able to eat when they are hungry,” said Mr. Lariea-Ajayi, underlining that the crisis is regional in nature, that the same shortages can to face other South Asian states.

“Economic insecurity and inflation are threatening the lives of children across South Asia,” he insisted. “What I saw in Sri Lanka shows us what can happen in other countries in South Asia.”

Families are now forced to “skip meals” because they don’t have the means to buy supplies, the UN agency official explained.

UNICEF is calling for $25 million in emergency aid to meet the immediate needs of half of Sri Lanka’s children.

Some 127,000 school-going children — out of a total of 570,000 — are malnourished, according to statistics from the government, which also appealed for help this month.

Sri Lanka, a state of 22 million inhabitants, remains mired in an economic crisis of historic proportions, the main symptoms of which are major shortages of food, fuel and medicine, in the absence of foreign exchange for their imports.

A record contraction of the economy (at least 8% of GDP) is expected in the country in 2022.

The South Asian island defaulted on its $51 billion foreign debt in mid-April, and is currently negotiating with the International Monetary Fund over a possible restructuring.

Political crisis has erupted in Sri Lanka since April 9, when mass demonstrations began in protest over shortages of basic necessities. It came to a head on July 9, when tens of thousands of protesters flooded the streets of Colombo and occupied the presidential palace, forcing Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee to Singapore and tender his resignation a few days later.

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