ICYMI. Thousands of Sri Lankan protesters stormed into the president’s official residence in Colombo on Saturday, July 9, demanding his resignation as public anger grows over the country’s worst economic crisis in seven decades.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka – Thousands of Sri Lankan protesters stormed into the president’s official residence in Colombo on Saturday, Julyt 9, demanding his resignation as public anger grows over the country’s worst economic crisis in seven decades.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe held talks with several political party leaders and they were due to convene a meeting organised by parliament’s speaker to decide what steps to take following the unrest. “The President and the Prime Minister must resign immediately. If that does not happen, political instability will worsen,” said Sri Lanka Freedom Party leader and former president Maithripala Sirisena, speaking before Wickremesinghe had offered his resignation.A Facebook livestream from inside the president’s house showed hundreds of protesters, some draped in the national flag, packing into rooms and corridors.
At least 39 people, including two police officers, were injured and hospitalised during the protests, hospital sources told Reuters.The Indian Ocean island of 22 million people is struggling under a severe foreign exchange shortage that has limited essential imports of fuel, food and medicine, plunging it into the worst economic crisis since independence in 1948.
The crisis comes after COVID-19 hammered the tourism-reliant economy and slashed remittances from overseas workers.It has been compounded by the build-up of hefty government debt, rising oil prices and a ban on the import of chemical fertilizers last year that devastated agriculture. The fertilizer ban was reversed in November.
Police fired shots in the air but were unable to stop the angry crowd from surrounding the presidential residence, the witness said.
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