India sends food, medicine donation to crisis-hit Sri Lanka
By KRISHAN FRANCIS
Associated Press
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka received a first shipment of a $16 million humanitarian aid package from neighboring India to help mitigate severe shortages caused by the country’s worst economic crisis in recent memory. The goods worth $5.6 million include rice, milk power and essential medicines. It was donated by the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu and delivered late Sunday to Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister Gamini Peiris. Sri Lanka is near bankruptcy and battling severe shortages of essentials from food, fuel, medicines and cooking gas to toilet paper and match sticks. For the past few months people have been forced to stay in long lines to buy the limited stocks.