Sri Lanka’s President Gotabaya Rajapaksa presents his national statement as a part of the World Leaders’ Summit at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland, Britain November 1, 2021. Andy Buchanan\/Pool via REUTERS<\/p>\n
Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country for the Maldives on Wednesday, hours before he was due to step down amid widespread protests over his handling of a devastating economic crisis.<\/p>\n
Rajapaksa, his wife, and two bodyguards left aboard a Sri Lankan Air Force plane, the air force said in a statement.<\/p>\n
A government source and a person close to Rajapaksa said he was in Male, the capital of the Maldives. The president would most likely proceed to another Asian country from there, the government source said.<\/p>\n
The president’s flight brings an end to the rule of the powerful Rajapksa clan that has dominated politics in the South Asian nation for the last two decades.<\/p>\n
Protests against the economic crisis have simmered for months and came to a head last weekend when hundreds of thousands of people took over key government buildings in Colombo. read more<\/p>\n
Critics blame the Rajapaksas and their allies for runaway inflation, corruption, and a severe lack of fuel and medicines.<\/p>\n
Rajapaksa was due to step down as president on Wednesday to make way for a unity government after protesters stormed his and the prime minister’s official residences. read more<\/p>\n
The president has not been seen in public since Friday.\u00a0 Sources close to Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena, the speaker of Sri Lanka’s parliament, said he was yet to receive any communication from Rajapaksa. The source close to Rajapaksa said he would send in a letter of resignation later on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The Sri Lanka Immigration &Emigration Officer’s Association has denied the media reports claiming that the immigration officers did not permit President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to leave the country. Intl Media didn’t check if immigration has any power to stop a sitting President<\/p>\n
Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa flies out of the country in a military aircraft to the nearby Maldives. He is the 2nd President of South Asia after Ashraf Ghani of Afghanistan fled. Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s rule was Islamophic but he escapes to an Islamic country.<\/p>\n