SRI LANKA's Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has agreed to resign after party leaders in Parliament demanded both he and the embattled president step down, on the day protesters stormed the president’s residence and office.
Wickremesinghe’s spokesman Dinouk Colambage said the premier had told party leaders he will resign when all parties have agreed on forming a new government.
His decision came after the biggest protest yet swept Sri Lanka on Saturday, with tens of thousands of people breaking through barricades and entering President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s residence and nearby office to vent their fury against a leader they hold responsible for the nation’s worst economic crisis.
It was not clear if Rajapaksa was at the residence in Colombo, but footage filmed on mobile phones showed a large number of people inside the well-fortified house and on the grounds outside.
Hundreds of protesters, some carrying national flags, also entered the president’s office in a nearby building.
Video posted on social media showed hundreds of protesters running into the president’s residence, chanting “Gota go home”, calling the president by his nickname. Outside the building, barricades were overturned.
At the president’s office, security personnel tried to stop protesters who passed through the fences and stormed the colonial-era parliament building, which has been converted into his office.
At least 34 people were injured in scuffles as protesters tried to enter the residence, with police firing tear gas at protesters.
Two injured are in critical condition while others have sustained minor injuries, hospital officials said.
Thousands of protesters had entered Colombo from the suburbs earlier on Saturday after police lifted an overnight curfew.
The UN has recently warned that Sri Lanka is facing a humanitarian crisis, with inflation at a staggering 54.6%, and food prices 500% higher, leaving two-thirds of the country struggling to eat.
In April, Sri Lanka announced it is suspending repaying foreign loans due to a foreign currency shortage. Its total foreign debt amounts to 51 billion US dollars (£42.4 billion), of which it must repay 28 billion (£23.3 billion) by the end of 2027.
Months of protests have nearly dismantled the Rajapaksa political dynasty that has ruled Sri Lanka for most of the past two decades.
In a statement to The Guardian, one protester Ruki Ferdando said: "I have never experienced such a widespread people’s uprising. There was such a sense of achievement when people entered the president’s house, and his secretariat.
"These are all places maintained in luxury by people’s money at a time when the government claims that there isn’t enough money to give medicine, to give food, to give fuel. So it’s very politically significant they have been reclaimed by the public.”
One of Rajapaksa’s brothers resigned as prime minister last month, and two other brothers and a nephew quit their cabinet posts earlier, but Rajapaksa has held on to power.
Wickremesinghe took over as prime minister in May and protests temporarily waned in the hope he could find cash for the country’s urgent needs.
However, people now want him to resign, saying he has failed to fulfil his promises and accusing the government of widespread corrpution and economic mismanagement.
