Sri Lankans depart the capital as political leaders meet to find a solution to the situation
Key Takeaways:
- President Gotabaya Rajapaksa warned of chaos as he returned home on Thursday, with political leaders seeking to meet after the prime minister quit and went into hiding.
- Protesters sprayed graffiti on Mahinda Rajapaksa's house and vandalised a museum in a southern town dedicated to his father.
Numerous Sri Lankans flocked to buses in the capital, Colombo, on Thursday to return home, with political leaders hoping to meet after the prime minister resigned and went into hiding, and President Gotabaya Rajapaksa warned of disorder.
Hundreds of people flocked to the commercial capital's main bus station as officials lifted an overnight curfew at 7 a.m. (0130 GMT). At 2 p.m., the curfew will be reinstated.
The island nation, which is experiencing its worst economic crisis since independence, was rocked by violence earlier this week after supporters of President Mahinda Rajapaksa's elder brother, former Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, tried to attack an anti-government protest rally in Colombo's commercial capital.
Days of retaliation against government officials linked to the Rajapaksa clan ensued. According to officials, 9 people were murdered, another 300 were injured in the skirmishes.
Protesters splashed graffiti on Mahinda Rajapaksa's home and trashed a museum dedicated to his father in a southern town. They have pledged to continue protesting until the president resigns as well.
After the conflict erupted, Mahinda Rajapaksa resigned and is sheltering at a military facility in the country's northeast. His brother announced on Wednesday that he will select a new prime minister and cabinet this week "to avoid the country from devolving into chaos and keep the government's operations running."
Later in the day, political party leaders were scheduled to meet with the country's parliament speaker to discuss the present situation.
President Rajapaksa has regularly called for a unity govt to find a way out of the situation. Still, opposition leaders have said they will not serve until he resigns for crisis management.
The island nation is undergoing its biggest financial crisis since 1948 because of the pandemic, increasing oil prices, and tax cuts by the populist Rajapaksa govt.
Useable foreign reserves are as low as $50 million, inflation is out of control, and fuel shortages have prompted thousands of people to go to the streets in more than a month of anti-government rallies that had been mostly calm until Monday.
According to Sri Lanka's central bank governor, failure to find a solution to the situation in the next one to two weeks may result in power outages of up to 10 to 12 hours per day and his departure.