On 22 June 2022, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe announced in an address to Parliament that the nation’s economy had collapsed amid months of nationwide electricity, fuel and food shortages. Wickremesinghe warned that the economic crisis is likely to worsen, as accumulated debt by state-owned Ceylon Petroleum Corporation has prohibited the country from purchasing fuel from international suppliers. Lengthy fuel queues and daily electricity blackouts of up to 13 hours at a time have led to large-scale demonstrations and the resignation of several senior members of government, including President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s brother, former Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa. Large-scale daily protests and acts of civil disobedience are likely to resume in Colombo and other major cities as the effects of the country’s inability to supply fuel for transportation, electricity and cooking needs reverberate throughout society.