Doctors told Reuters that “a shortage of medicine caused by an economic crisis in Sri Lanka could soon cause deaths, as hospitals are forced to postpone life-saving procedures for their patients because they do not have the necessary drugs.”

Private donors are called for help.

Sri Lanka is struggling with high inflation, a plummeting currency and an economic crisis that has left the country short of the hard currency it needs to import food and fuel.

Anger has boiled over into protests, and at least nine people have been killed.

President GotabayaRajapaksa has defied demands that he resign.

Protesters continue to mass in Colombo.

Aljazeera/Reuters.