COLOMBO: Sri Lanka appointed nine new cabinet members on Friday, among them ministers for the critical portfolios of health, trade and tourism, as the island nation battles its worst economic crisis in history.

“Nine cabinet ministers of the new all-party government took their oaths before President Gotabaya Rajapaksa,” a presidential news statement said.

‘We are going to die’: Sri Lanka warns of food shortages

Veteran politician Ranil Wickremesinghe took over as prime minister this month to form a new cabinet after the president’s elder brother, Mahinda Rajapaksa, resigned from the job.