Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka's street protests over soaring inflation, shortages of food and fuel and lengthy power cuts have shaken President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's hold on ...

Rajapaksa, whose powers were expanded under a 2020 constitutional amendment, has condemned the violence and invited all parties in parliament to join in a national unity government to resolve the crisis. Civil war between the Sinhalese-dominated government and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam went on for decades and killed 100,000 people. The finance ministry also said it would expedite talks with the IMF for an aid package. Mahinda Rajapaksa’s resignation as prime minister on May 9 left no government in place to lead talks with the International Monetary Fund for emergency funds to buy food and fuel. Rajapaksa’s opponents have camped out in downtown Colombo, the capital, for weeks to demand his resignation. Making matters worse was Rajapaksa’s pivot in 2021 to organic farming with a ban on chemical fertilizers that triggered farmer protests and saw production of critical tea and rice crops decline.

Sri Lanka's outgoing Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa was rescued in a pre-dawn military operation Tuesday, hours after his resignation, as violent clashes ...

The government was recently thrown into disarray when ministers stepped down en masse. "(I) strongly condemn the violent acts taking place by those inciting and participating, irrespective of political allegiances," he wrote. Following the chaotic scenes, the government brought in an island-wide curfew, and soon afterwards the Prime Minister, 76, resigned. Dozens of homes were torched across the country amid the violence, according to witnesses CNN spoke to. Some people have died waiting. "It is vitally important for the security forces to fully respect the right to peaceful assembly, and for those responsible for violence to be held to account," Ganguly said.

A few hundred protesters are defying a countrywide curfew Tuesday in Sri Lanka, a day after widespread clashes that led to the prime minister's resignation.

Doctors have warned of crippling shortages of life-saving drugs in hospitals, and the government has suspended payments on $7 billion in foreign debt due this year alone. But unable to escape the public anger, both he and his brother have since admitted to mistakes that exacerbated the crisis, including conceding they should have sought an International Monetary Fund bailout sooner. The South Asian island nation has been seething for more than a month, as protests have spread from the capital to the countryside. Authorities swiftly deployed armed troops in many parts of the country and imposed a curfew until Wednesday. One of the protesters, software engineer Chamath Bogahawatta, said that the government "did something very despicable by bringing in people to provoke us. The site outside Rajapaksa’s office has seen sustained crowds of thousands for weeks, but had dropped to hundreds on Tuesday due to a strict curfew, following clashes yesterday that left four dead.

Troops are on the streets across Sri Lanka after a night of anti-government unrest fuelled by an economic crisis.

You can also get in touch in the following ways: Following Mahinda Rajapaksa's resignation, protesters attempted to breach the inner compound of Temple Trees where he was staying along with several loyalists, and set fire to a bus outside the home. Elsewhere in Colombo, tensions remained high. Many protesters are still calling for President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, brother of Mahinda, to leave office. Men armed with sticks and rods had established road blocks on the routes leading to and from the airport, and police and security forces - usually a common sight in the area - were nowhere to be seen, reports the BBC's Anbarasan Ethirajan. As the night went on, mobs of protesters across the country torched houses belonging to the Rajapaksas, various ministers and MPs. This included a house turned into a controversial museum by the Rajapaksas in the family's ancestral village in Hambantota in southern Sri Lanka.

Colombo, Sri Lanka – With the resignation of Sri Lanka's prime minister and former two-time executive president Mahinda Rajapksa in Colombo on Monday, ...

The public however, has risen sharply against this approach and intensified their calls for the resignation of both the president and prime minister. On May 3, a no-trust motion was submitted in parliament against the Rajapaksa administration. He was defeated in 1977 when the United National Party recorded a landslide victory and returned to parliament in 1989. Large-scale corruption allegations were also leveled against the regime in military purchases during the years of civil war that ended in 2009. Mounting criticism against the government had intensified calls for the collective resignations of all Rajapaksas. But violence erupted in Colombo on Monday when a group of Rajapaksa loyalists attacked protesters camped outside his official residence, Temple Trees, in Colombo. At least three people were killed as violence erupted across the Indian Ocean island.

Sri Lanka gave emergency powers on Tuesday to its military and police to detain people without warrants, after a day of clashes that killed seven people and ...

said Bhavani Fonseka, of the Centre for Policy Alternatives think tank based in Colombo. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com The government of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the younger brother of the prime minister, outlined broad powers for the military and police to detain and question people without arrest warrants.

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — As hundreds of supporters of Sri Lanka's powerful Rajapaksa family stormed through the capital Monday, beating anti-government ...

“This is not going to end until Gota goes home,” he said, using a nickname for the president. “Protesters have put everyone in the same category because they’re seen as part of the problem that allowed this economic situation to brew month after month,” he said. Roger Warnakula, a disc jockey who has been at the encampment for weeks, said he and other protesters were outnumbered 10 to 1 when government supporters flooded the area, indiscriminately beating people with steel rods and wooden sticks. “People became so furious with the assault on protesters that things went out of hand,” Perera said, recalling how he tried to stop the fighting in downtown Colombo on Monday, only for it to sweep across the country as news of the clashes spread on social media. Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, executive director of the Center for Policy Alternatives in Colombo, said the upheaval was compounding the country’s economic challenges. Outraged by Mahinda Rajapaksa’s attempt to crush the protest movement, his political opponents called Tuesday for him to face criminal liability. It is unclear whom he could name as prime minister who would be able to effectively unite the country’s divided factions. By the end of the day, Rajapaksa had resigned and the country was in turmoil. By Tuesday morning, the former prime minister had reportedly fled to a military base in the country’s northeast, which was soon surrounded by angry citizens. Peaceful demonstrators had gathered nightly in Colombo for the past month amid a spiraling economic crisis, calling on the ruling political family to step down. But political leaders and analysts voiced worries about one of Asia’s oldest democracies falling under military control if the situation deteriorated further. The circumstances of his death remained unclear.

Defying a nationwide curfew in Sri Lanka, a few hundred protesters continued to chant slogans against the government Tuesday, a day after violent clashes ...

Doctors have warned of crippling shortages of life-saving drugs in hospitals, and the government has suspended payments on $7 billion in foreign debt due this year alone. Authorities swiftly deployed armed troops in many parts of the country and imposed a curfew until Wednesday. The South Asian island nation has been seething for more than a month, as protests have spread from the capital to the countryside.

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Sri Lankan soldiers stand guard next to burnt buses a day after clashes between government supporters and anti-government protesters in Colombo, Sri Lanka, ...

But unable to escape the public anger, both he and his brother have since admitted to mistakes that exacerbated the crisis, and conceded they should have sought an International Monetary Fund bailout sooner. Doctors have warned of crippling shortages of life-saving drugs in hospitals, and the government has suspended payments on $7 billion in foreign debt due this year alone. But any long-term plan is expected to take at least six months to get underway. With Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa's resignation, the Cabinet was also dissolved, creating an administrative vacuum. Across the country, angry citizens responded by attacking government supporters and ruling party politicians. Even though the president has the most power under the constitution, a prime minister and Cabinet are needed to manage the government.