Sri Lanka’s President, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, is set to resign on July 13 following massive protests by citizens, on Saturday, 9th July.
The country’s parliamentary speaker, Mahinda Abeywardana, said, the president will remain in office until next Wednesday for a peaceful transition.
Sri Lanka, over the years have suffered a horrifying financial turmoil with severe shortages of fuel, medicine, food amongst other things.
On July 5, 2022, Sri Lankan incumbent Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe had declared the country “bankrupt”.
The same economic crisis and protests led to the resignations of Basil Rajapaksa, a brother to Sri Lanka’s president and the country’s former finance minister from parliament in June and their older brother Mahinda Rajapaksa, as prime minister in May.
Although, the president had, in June, insisted on finishing the remaining two years of his term despite months-long protests calling for his resignation.
The announcement of the president’s resignation came hours after protesters stormed his official residence, however, Rajapaksa, had earlier been evacuated before their arrival.
Viral videos emerged on social media of protesters in various parts of the official residence.
The protesters later broke into Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s residence and set it on fire.