Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the Maldives aboard a flight to Singapore, he told CNN a high-ranking security source in the city of Colombo, as anger grows in his home country over his refusal to formally resign.
He is due to arrive at Singapore’s Changi Airport late on Thursday, the security source said. Rajapaksa was hoping to secure a “private jet” from a close family member in Colombo, but that “did not materialize,” the source added.
Rajapaksa left the Maldives capital Malé aboard a “Saudi flight”, the source said.
THE CNN believes the source was referring to Saudia Flight 788, which left Male at 11:30 am local time on Thursday.
Saudia is a flag carrier of Saudi Arabia.
THE CNN contacted the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Singapore and Saudi Arabia, but received no response.
Rajapaksa had been in the Maldives for a day after fleeing Sri Lanka in the early hours of Wednesday – the same day he said he would resign.
But as of Thursday, no formal letter of resignation had been received by the speaker of Sri Lanka’s parliament, raising questions about the intentions of a seemingly self-exiled leader who appointed the prime minister as interim president during his absence from his nation. insular.
Shortly after Rajapaksa left the country, protesters stormed the office of incumbent President Ranil Wickremesinghe to demand his removal. Wickremesinghe responded by calling for an overnight nationwide curfew.
Many protesters vowed to continue demonstrating until the two men resign.
A high-ranking military officer told the CNN that Wickremesinghe appointed a committee of armed forces commanders to “restore law and order” across the country.
On Thursday morning, as questions swirled around Sri Lanka’s future, a lull reigned in the streets of the commercial capital Colombo, according to senior police superintendent Nihal Thalduwa.
But everywhere there are signs that the country remains on a razor’s edge.
Amid crippling fuel shortages, abandoned vehicles line the streets near gas stations. People are no longer able to drive to work, so they ride bicycles. Some went to sleep in their cars.
Sri Lanka’s police force said a police officer was seriously injured during the protests and was receiving treatment at the hospital. An army sergeant was also wounded, he added.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said on Thursday he was following events in Sri Lanka “very closely” and called for a “peaceful and democratic transition”.
“It is important that the root causes of the conflict and the protesters’ grievances are addressed,” he wrote on Twitter. “I urge all party leaders to embrace the spirit of compromise for a peaceful and democratic transition.”
Source: CNN Brasil
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