State of emergency and curfew declared in Sri Lanka to contain anti-government demonstrations

Sri Lanka declared this Wednesday a state of emergency and a curfew to contain thousands of protesters who marched on the prime minister’s office after President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country hours before. Sri Lankan police fired tear gas at protesters, who are demanding that Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe resign as Rajapaksa promised, according to journalists from the GLM in the place.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled on a military plane to the Maldives, an archipelago near Sri Lanka in the Indian Ocean, cornered by the worst economic crisis in the history of this island in southern India. Shortly after, the Sri Lankan prime minister’s office declared a state of emergency and imposed a curfew in the capital. After the flight of the president, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the public now demands the resignation of the prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe

“The president left the country, a state of emergency is declared to deal with the situation in the country,” he told the GLM the prime minister’s spokesman, Dinouk Colombage. The police announced an indefinite curfew in the western provincewhere Colombo is, to contain the protests.

“We need a curfew to control the situation,” a police officer told the GLM adding that the order was given to repress the demonstrations that disturb the functioning of the State. On Saturday, the mob stormed the official residence of President Rajapaksa, forcing him to flee to a military base.

PUBLIC HUMILIATION

Prior to his flight on Tuesday, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa was considering the possibility of leaving the country in a navy patrol boat, the day after his frustrated attempt to take a plane to Dubai after a humiliating struggle with the security service. airport immigration according to official sources. Gotabaya Rajapaksa promised that he would resign on Wednesday and that he would pave the way for a “peaceful transition” after the massive protests against his government for handling the crisis unprecedented in the country.

Last weekend, the 73-year-old president fled the residence under pressure from thousands of protesters who finally entered the presidential complex. The president and his wife spent the night before the trip he was seeking to make to Dubai at a military base, according to official sources.

But at the airport immigration officials denied him access to the VIP room to stamp his passport. Rajapaksa wanted to avoid the public terminal for fear of a adverse reaction of people.

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