Sri Lanka President Gotabaya Rajapaksa Flees As Demonstrators Surround Residence: Report

Protesters besieged Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s house on Saturday, forcing him to flee, as per the defence sources, information company AFP reported.

Protesters have infiltrated the President’s home, in keeping with the Sri Lanka-based Day by day Mirror.

Dwell replace from Colombo Fort. pic.twitter.com/SVmhGVWJ4R

— DailyMirror (@Dailymirror_SL) July 9, 2022

In response to Reuters, video footage from the native TV information channel NewsFirst confirmed demonstrators carrying Sri Lankan flags and helmets breaking into the president’s residence.

In response to Reuters, police fired rounds into the air however had been unable to cease the irate throng from encircling the presidential residence.

“1000’s of protestors have reached the primary entrance of the President’s Home in Fort after placing down layers of barricades and the police had been seen withdrawing from the world. Photographs had been heard being fired within the air and steady rounds of tear gasoline is being fired,” it mentioned in a report.

1000’s of demonstrators have been asking for Rajapaksa’s resignation since March, when it was revealed that Sri Lanka was within the grip of a severe financial disaster. Since then, the nation’s gasoline costs have skyrocketed as a result of nation’s incapability to obtain cargoes. Because the scenario worsened, faculties had been shuttered and gasoline, diesel, and cooking gas had been rationed.

Sri Lanka Disaster

For the uninitiated, Sri Lanka now has a $51 billion overseas debt. Persistent fiscal deficits, a serious 2019 tax minimize package deal, and the horrors of the COVID-19 outbreak have rendered Sri Lanka’s public debt load unsustainable, whereas the collapse of tourism has resulted in a drop in overseas trade earnings.

Colombo has introduced that it might cease reimbursement of overseas money owed after its overseas forex reserves fell beneath $50 million.

In response to the UN humanitarian company, OCHA, this, together with meals and power worth shocks earlier this 12 months, exacerbated by the Ukraine battle, has resulted in a debt and balance-of-payments disaster.

Sri Lanka is presently required to pay $7 billion in overseas loans by the top of this 12 months, and $25 billion by 2026.

(With Inputs From Companies)