Mahinda Rajapaksa resigned as Sri Lanka’s prime minister following weeks of protests demanding that he and his brother, the nation’s President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, step down over the nation’s worst financial disaster in a long time.
Mahinda Rajapaksa mentioned on Twitter that he submitted his resignation to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, a transfer that adopted a violent assault by authorities supporters on the protesters, following which armed troops have been deployed in Colombo. The deployment got here after violence was reported in lots of elements of the nation, with a nationwide curfew being imposed until Wednesday, on high of the state of emergency that the President had declared final week.
Here are the highest 10 updates on the Sri Lanka financial disaster at the moment:
➡️ Mahinda’s resignation got here hours after his supporters attacked anti-regime protesters exterior President Gotabaya’s workplace, leaving round 173 individuals injured and triggering widespread violence in opposition to pro-Rajapaksa politicians. At least 9 individuals have been taken to Colombo’s National Hospital for remedy regarding accidents or tear fuel inhalation, a hospital official mentioned, declining to be recognized. As many as 200 individuals have been injured all through the day. At least 5 individuals, together with a ruling occasion MP Amarakeerthi Athukorale, have been killed within the subsequent violence witnessed in varied elements of the nation.
➡️ Mahinda Rajapaksa’s supporters on Monday attacked protesters who had been demonstrating exterior the prime minister’s official residence for weeks, hitting them with picket and iron poles. They then marched to the president’s workplace, the place in addition they attacked protesters and set their camps on hearth. Police fired tear fuel and a water cannon, however not forcefully sufficient to manage the mob. Sri Lankan media additionally reported {that a} hearth broke out close to the again gate of Temple Trees, the official residence of the Sri Lankan Prime Minister.
➡️ Athukorale and his bodyguard have been killed in Nittambuwa, some 30 kilometres (20 miles) north of Colombo, after the automotive they have been travelling in was intercepted by an indignant crowd, a police spokesman mentioned. Athukorale or his bodyguard had fired gunshots on the protesters, who chased them and trapped them inside a constructing the place their badly overwhelmed our bodies have been recovered by police a number of hours later, the spokesman mentioned. Three individuals have been hospitalised with gunshot wounds from the photographs fired from the lawmaker’s automobile, he mentioned.
➡️ The ancestral dwelling of the Rajapaksas in Hambantota was set on hearth by a gaggle of anti-government protesters, hours after Mahinda’s resignation. Video footage confirmed your entire home of Mahinda Rajapaksa and his youthful brother and President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in Medamulana in Hambantota metropolis burning as protesters hooted away, the Daily Mirror reported.
➡️ Several properties of ministers and lawmakers of the ruling coalition have been additionally destroyed by the protesters. Protesters additionally attacked the home of Badulla District parliamentarian Tissa Kuttiarachch and later set it on hearth. The home of Puttalam MP Santha Nishantha was fully destroyed attributable to an arson assault. The workplaces of former minister Johnston Fernando have been attacked by indignant crowds in Kurunegala and Lillie Street. A tavern owned by him was set on hearth.
➡️ The mob set on hearth the house of former minister Nimal Lanza in Negombo, the Moratuwa residence of Mayor Saman Lal Fernando, lawmaker Arundika Fernando’s home in Kochchikade, a retail retailer belonging to lawmaker Thissa Kuttiarachchi in Bandarawela and lawmaker Mahipala Herath’s residence in Kegalle. The mob additionally attacked ruling occasion Trade Leader Mahinda Kahandagamage’s residence in Vauxhall Street, Colombo.
➡️ Two individuals have been killed and 9 others injured in a capturing on the residence of the Chairman of the Weeraketiya Pradeshiya Sabha.
➡️ The US condemned the violence whereas additionally expressing concern in regards to the emergency declaration, which it mentioned can be utilized to curb dissent. “We urge the government to work quickly to identify and implement solutions to achieve long-term economic stability and address the Sri Lankan people’s discontent over the worsening economic conditions including power, food and medicine shortages as well,” State Department spokesman Ned Price advised reporters in Washington. The US State Department additionally urged Sri Lankans to deal with discovering “long-term solutions to the country’s economic and political challenges”.
➡️ The European Union and British minister Lord Tariq Ahmad of Wimbledon condemned Monday’s violence and known as on the federal government to deliver those that instigated the violence to justice.
➡️ Imports of all the pieces from milk to gas have plunged, spawning dire meals shortages and rolling energy cuts. People have been pressured to face in traces for hours to purchase necessities. Doctors have warned of crippling shortages of life-saving medicine in hospitals, and the federal government has suspended funds on $7 billion in overseas debt due this 12 months alone.
(With inputs from businesses)
