After mass protests
President flees to the Maldives: Sri Lanka declares a state of emergency
Has fled to the Maldives: Sri Lanka’s ousted President Gotabaya Rajapaksa (archive image)
© Eranga Jayawardena/AP/DPA
A massive economic crisis has been driving people in Sri Lanka against President Gotabaya Rajapaksa for months. Shortly before his announced resignation, he fled the country.
After months of mass popular protests against the serious economic crisis, Sri Lanka’s de facto ousted President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country. A military plane with the 73-year-old and his wife on board landed on Wednesday morning at the Maldives’ capital airport in Male, as the local authorities confirmed. Sri Lanka’s Air Force said it had one aircraft ready. Amidst the protests, Rajapaksa originally announced that he wanted to step down as president of the South Asian island nation on Wednesday. He took office at the end of 2019.
The news of his departure sparked jubilation among the demonstrators in the capital, Colombo. A state of emergency has been declared in Sri Lanka after Rajapaksa escaped. The measure applies nationwide, the Prime Minister’s spokesman said on Wednesday of the AFP news agency.
Protests also against the possible incumbent president
Over the weekend, an angry crowd stormed and occupied the presidential palace and an office building of the head of state and set fire to the private residence of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, 73. He too had agreed to resign over the weekend. According to the constitution, he is now to take over as acting president on an interim basis, as reported by local media. On July 20, the parliament wants to elect a new head of state.
However, the demonstrators see the prime minister as an ally of the head of state and are opposed to him temporarily taking over his post. If he doesn’t give up, they threatened a general strike.
Sri Lanka in severe economic crisis
The island state south of India, with around 22 million inhabitants, is going through the worst economic crisis since independence from Great Britain in 1948. The anger of the demonstrators is fueled, among other things, by the lack of fuel and gas for cooking, which has existed for months, but also by the lack of medicine and food . High inflation and hour-long power outages also cause great resentment. One reason for this is that income from important tourism has collapsed in the wake of the corona pandemic. The heavily indebted country lacks the money to import important goods.
In view of the crisis, the government has asked the International Monetary Fund, India, China, Russia and other countries, among others, for help. The UN Emergency Relief Office warned in June that the severe economic crisis could exacerbate a looming hunger crisis in Sri Lanka. The country had previously been on a good development path for ten years and managed without UN humanitarian aid.