Sri Lankan president flees to Maldives amid widespread protests
Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country for the Maldives today, hours before he is scheduled to step down amid widespread protests over his handling of a devastating economic crisis.
The air force said in a statement that Rajapaksa, his wife and two bodyguards left on board a Sri Lankan Air Force plane.
A government source and a person close to Rajapaksa said he is in Male, the capital of the Maldives, and the president is likely to move to another Asian country from there.
The president's escape ends the rule of the powerful Rajapaksa family that has dominated politics in the South Asian country for the past two decades.
It is reported that the protests escalated due to the economic crisis for months and reached their climax at the end of last week when hundreds of thousands of protesters took control of the main government buildings in Colombo.
Some blamed the Rajapaksa family and their allies for hyperinflation, corruption and severe shortages of fuel and medicine. Rajapaksa was due to step down today to make way for a unity government after protesters stormed his residence and the prime minister's residence.
It is reported that the president has not appeared in public since Friday.
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