Sri Lanka PM confirms President Rajapaksa to resign

 

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe says President Gotabaya Rajapaksa will resign, following the most dramatic day of months-long turmoil, with protesters storming the leaders' homes in rage over an economic crisis.

Protesters swim as onlookers wait at a swimming pool in president's official residence a day after it was stormed in Colombo, Sri Lanka. (AP)

Sri Lanka's President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has informed Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe that he will resign as previously announced.

PM Wickremesinghe's office announced Rajapaksa's resignation on Monday after Sri Lankan protesters, who are occupying Rajapaksa's residence in the capital Colombo, said they will won't leave the premises until Rajapaksa actually leaves the office.

The parliamentary speaker earlier said Rajapaksa would resign on Wednesday.

"Our struggle is not over," student leader Lahiru Weerasekara told reporters on Sunday, the day after Rajapaksa, currently taking refuge on a vessel offshore, said he would step down on Wednesday.

"We won't give up this struggle until he actually leaves." 

Unprecedented crisis

The dramatic events on Saturday were the culmination of months of protests by people enraged by the South Asian island nation's unprecedented economic crisis and corruption.

Hundreds of thousands massed in Colombo demanding Rajapaksa take responsibility for shortages of medicines, food and fuel that have brought the once-relatively rich economy to its knees and caused misery for ordinary people.

After storming the gates of the colonial-era presidential palace, protesters lounged in its opulent rooms, somersaulting into the compound's pool and rummaging through Rajapaksa's clothes.

 Source: TRTWorld and agencies

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(With input from news agency language)

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