LAST UPDATE: 20.30
Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe intends to resign to pave the way for the formation of a multi-party government, his office said in a statement today.
The announcement followed escalating anti-government protests that forced the country’s President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee his official residence in Colombo today minutes before thousands of protesters stormed it, in one of the country’s biggest anti-government demonstrations in months. .
Some protesters, carrying Sri Lankan flags and wearing helmets, stormed the residence of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, according to images broadcast by local television station NewsFirst showing protesters falling into the residence’s swimming pool.
As reported by the private television network Sirasa TV, a crowd of protesters has stormed the presidential palace, which until now was strictly guarded.
A Defense source said Rajapaksa remains Sri Lanka’s president and has been moved to a secure location, where he is being protected by the military.
Earlier, thousands of people had flocked to the Colombo district where the government buildings are located, chanting slogans against the president and breaking down several police barricades until they reached his residence.
Police fired into the air but were unable to stop the angry crowd from surrounding the presidential palace, an eyewitness said.
Sri Lanka is suffering from the worst economic crisis in its history. It is faced with a huge shortage of foreign exchange, which does not allow it to import sufficient quantities of food, fuel, medicine and other essential products.
The island of 22 million inhabitants, near India, has been living for months at the rate of daily power outages, endless queues at petrol stations, food rationing, record inflation which has reached 70%.
Peaceful protests for several weeks have centered on the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, whom many citizens, even as his former supporters, accuse of mismanagement.
After the outbreak of the protests, all members of the Rajapaksa family who participated in the government resigned, with the exception of the country’s president.
Gotabaya Rajapaksa has ignored calls to step down and in May, after the resignation of his prime minister and brother Mahinda, he appointed his rival Ranil Wickremesinghe as prime minister.
The prime minister’s residence is on fire after protesters invaded
A crowd of protesters stormed the Sri Lankan prime minister’s residence on Saturday night in Colombo, setting it on fire, police and the prime minister’s entourage said.
“Protesters stormed the private residence of Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and set it on fire,” the prime minister’s office said.
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa will step down on July 13
Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa will step down next week, Parliament Speaker Mahinda Abhiwardana announced today.
Rajapaksa fled his official residence in Colombo earlier today minutes before thousands of protesters stormed it, in one of the biggest anti-government demonstrations in months in the country.
“To ensure a peaceful transition, the president said he was going to step down on July 13,” Abhiwardana said on television.
Source: Capital
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