Alasdair Pa and Uditha Jasinghe

COLOMBO, (Reuters) – Sri Lanka’s prime minister will speak to the nation in crisis later Monday. The country’s power minister warned citizens against joining the fuel lines that have sparked weeks of protests.

Ranil Wickremesinghe was appointed as prime minister Thursday. He said that he will give an “full explanation” of the financial crisis which has decimated the strategically important Indian Ocean nation. This is where India and China are fighting for power.

It is clear that there are many tasks to complete and unfinished. He said that while we are prioritizing matters, you can rest assured that they will be dealt with as soon as possible.”

After fighting between government supporters, protesters, and 9 killed and 300 wounded in clashes over the crisis, widespread protests were held against President Gotabaya Rajapaksa Rajapaksa.

In a desperate attempt to calm protesters, the president replaced Wickremesinghe with Wickremesinghe. Wickremesinghe is an opposition parlamentararian.

Protesters however have declared that they will continue to campaign for Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s presidency. The protesters also called Wickremesinghe an ogre and criticised Wickremesinghe’s appointment of four cabinet members, all of whom are part of the Rajapaksa family.

Sri Lanka has experienced a severe crisis ever since it gained independence in 1948. This is due to rising oil prices, the pandemic, and the populist tax cuts of the Rajapaksas.

An ongoing shortage in foreign exchange has caused rampant inflation, fuel shortages and thousands of protestors to take to the streets.

The country received a diesel shipment with an Indian credit card on Sunday. However, it is still being distributed throughout the island. This has led to long queues at many locations.

Kanchana Wijesekera, Power Minister, said Monday that the government asked the public to refrain from waiting or topping up during the three-day period between the 1190 fuel station delivery and completion.

Wickremesinghe has yet to nominate a finance minister. He will be working with the International Monetary Fund to provide urgent financial assistance for Sri Lanka.

Ali Sabry was the Finance Minister in former times. He had been involved with multilateral lenders, but with Mahinda Rajapaksa, he resigned.