Two men die in Sri Lanka while waiting in queue for fuel

At least two people have died in Sri Lanka while waiting in long queues for fuel, officials say, as widespread shortages and sky-rocketing prices cause misery and hardship across the island nation, Aljazeera reports.

The men, in their seventies, died while they were waiting for petrol and kerosene oil in two different parts of the country, police spokesman Nalin Thalduwa in commercial capital Colombo said on Sunday.

For weeks, Sri Lankans have been queueing up at pumps, often for hours as the country battles the worst economic crisis in its history as an independent nation, with a lack of foreign exchange to buy vital imports shrinking the supply of essential goods.

“One was a 70-year-old three-wheeler driver who was a diabetic and heart patient while the second was a 72-year-old, both had been waiting in line for about four hours for fuel oil,” Thalduwa said.

Motorists are forced to wait for hours outside filling stations for petrol and the government has imposed rolling blackouts as power utilities are unable to pay for enough foreign oil to meet demand.

Local media reports said multiple women standing in the hot sun to buy cooking gas had fainted at several locations across the island over the weekend.

On Sunday, Sri Lanka suspended operations at its only fuel refinery after crude oil stocks ran out, said Ashoka Ranwala, the president of the Petroleum General Employees’ Union.

The energy ministry could not be reached immediately for comment.

The use of kerosene oil has increased after low-income families began shifting away from cooking gas due to price increases. On Sunday, Laugfs Gas, the country’s second-largest supplier raised prices by 1,359 Sri Lankan rupees ($4.94) for a 12.5kg cylinder, the company said in a statement.

Sri Lanka has been struggling to find dollars to pay for increasingly expensive fuel shipments since January, with its foreign currency reserves dipping to $2.31bn in February.