Sri Lanka: President Rajapaksa to resign after palace stormed

Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has announced he will step down after protesters stormed his official residence and set the prime minister’s house on fire.

Neither the PM nor the president were in the buildings.

Thousands descended on the capital Colombo, calling for Mr Rajapaksa to resign after months of protests over mismanagement of an economic crisis.

Mr Rajapaksa will step down on 13 July. PM Wickremesinghe has agreed to resign.

Parliamentary speaker Mahinda Abeywardana said the president was resigning “to ensure a peaceful transition”.

Just hours earlier, Mr Wickremesinghe’s home was on fire after protesters broke in and set it alight. Videos circulating on social media show flames lighting up the night sky.

Crowds had earlier overrun the official residence of Mr Rajapaksa, lounging in its stately rooms and jumping in his pool.

The country is suffering rampant inflation and is struggling to import food, fuel and medicine.

Large numbers of protesters travelled to the capital from across the country, with officials telling AFP news agency that some had even “commandeered” trains to get there.

Mr Rajapaksa vacated his official residence on Friday as a safety precaution ahead of the planned protests, two defence ministry sources said, according to Reuters.

The BBC has been unable to confirm the president’s whereabouts. A source close to the PM said he was in a “safe place”.

Protesters made their way towards the president’s residence on Saturday morning, before breaking through barricades.

Hundreds of protesters made their way into the house, chanting slogans and waving the national flag.

Footage on social media soon showed people roaming through the house and splashing in the pool. Some could be seen emptying out a chest of drawers.

Although it is Mr Rajapaksa’s official residence, he usually sleeps at a separate house nearby.

Similar scenes could be witnessed at the prime minister’s house.

His office later announced that he had agreed to resign to make way for an all-party government.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said he was willing to quit to ensure the safety of civilians.

But soon after his announcement videos started circulating of his house up in flames. The prime minister lives with his family in a private home, known as Fifth Lane. He uses his official residence, called Temple Trees, for official business only.

One protester, Fiona Sirmana, who was at the protest at the president’s house, said it was time “to get rid of the president and the prime minister and to have a new era for Sri Lanka”.

“I feel very, very sad that they didn’t go earlier because had they gone earlier there wouldn’t have been any destruction,” she said.

Last week, the authorities suspended sales of petrol and diesel for non-essential vehicles in an attempt to preserve the country’s dwindling fuel stocks.

The government has been trying to secure fuel on credit from countries including Russia – so far with no success.

It has requested emergency financial help and it blames the Covid-19 pandemic, which all but killed off Sri Lanka’s tourist trade – one of its biggest foreign currency earners – for the crisis.

But many experts say economic mismanagement is to blame.

Demonstrations have been taking place since March demanding that President Rajapaksa quit.

The deepening economic crisis saw the president’s older brother, Mahinda Rajapaksa, forced to resign as prime minister in May.