Sri Lankan president flees country ahead of resignation announcement

Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has fled, international media have reported. Saturday stormed angry protesters his residence. He had been in hiding ever since. The president flew with his wife and two bodyguards to Malé, the capital of the Maldives.

Sri Lanka has been unstable for some time and there are regular large anti-government protests. The protesters hold the government responsible for the deep economic crisis in which the country finds itself and have been calling for its departure for some time. There is a severe shortage of food, fuel and medicine, among other things. Inflation is also skyrocketing, causing a historically large budget deficit.

According to BBC It’s not just the president who fled. His brother, Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa, is also said to have fled the country. He also has a US passport and may have fled to the United States. Prime Minister Wickremesinghe is also expected to leave Sri Lanka according to the British broadcaster.

After the storming of Rajapaksa’s official residence and the arson attack on the prime minister’s home last Saturday, the president had already pledged to step down. He was supposed to do it later today.

It is not yet known why Rajapaksa decided to flee the country prematurely. This is probably to prevent him from being arrested by a new government. As long as he is president, he is immune from prosecution.