Sri Lanka Live Updates: The President Has Agreed to Step Down, Officials Say

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa of Sri Lanka agreed to step down after what appeared to be one of the largest protests yet, following months of demonstrations fueled by the nation’s economic crisis.CreditCredit…Chamila Karunarathne/EPA, via Shutterstock

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, whose family has dominated politics in Sri Lanka for much of the past two decades, has agreed to resign after months of protests accusing him of running the island nation’s economy into the ground through corruption and mismanagement, the speaker of the country’s parliament said on Saturday.

Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena, the parliamentary speaker and an ally of the president, announced the development at the end of a chaotic day. Protesters entered the president’s residence and office, ​and thousands ​more ​descended on the capital, Colombo, to register their growing fury over his government’s inability to address a crippling economic crisis. As the demonstrations swelled, the country’s political leaders urged Mr. Rajapaksa to step down.

There was no direct confirmation about the potential resignation from Mr. Rajapaksa, who is in hiding and who in the past has remained defiant. Mr. Abeywardena, in a televised statement, said the president had informed him he would resign on July 13, “to ensure a peaceful transition of power.”

By the evening, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who took office only in May and was also facing demands to resign, said he would step down, saying he had “the safety of all citizens” in mind. Protesters also entered his private home late Saturday and set it ablaze, said Dinouk Colombage, a spokesman for the prime minister, adding that Mr. Wickremesinghe was not at home at the time.

Sri Lanka has run out of foreign-exchange reserves for imports of essential items like fuel and medicine, and the United Nations has warned that more than a quarter of Sri Lanka’s people are at risk of food shortages.

The economic crisis is a major setback for the nation, which is still grappling with the legacy of a bloody three-decade civil war. That conflict, between the government and insurgents who had taken up the cause of discrimination against the ethnic minority Tamils, ended in 2009. But many of its underlying causes have remained, with the Rajapaksa family continuing to cater to the majority Buddhist Sinhalese.

The country’s downward spiral has played out as high energy prices and food inflation have afflicted much of the world. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the sanctions that followed, have sent energy prices flying, while global food supply chains are increasingly dwindling under stress and demand.

The turmoil in Sri Lanka has already begun to reshape the geopolitical landscape of the region, where the island nation of 22 million has long been viewed as a strategic prize, with both China and India — longtime rivals — jostling for influence.

On Saturday, at least 42 people were injured in clashes with security forces in the city, health officials said, after the police used tear gas and water cannons against protesters and fired shots into the air to try to disperse them.

A Sri Lankan television station said four of its journalists were attacked by security forces outside the residence of Mr. Wickremesinghe, the prime minister, on Saturday evening.

Local news media showed footage of protesters breaching parts of the presidential residence as well as his secretariat, a separate building that houses his office.

Videos on social media showed protesters jumping into the pool in Mr. Rajapaksa’s residence, resting in bedrooms, and frying snacks in the presidential kitchen.

“I came here today to send the president home,” said Wasantha Kiruwaththuduwa, 50, who had walked 10 miles to join the protest. “Now the president must resign. If he wants peace to prevail, he must step down.”

Speculation about the whereabouts of Mr. Rajapaksa continued to intensify into the evening, but his location remained unclear. Officials at the Defense Ministry and in the army did not immediately respond to questions about Mr. Rajapaksa’s location.

Karan Deep Singh contributed reporting.

— Skandha Gunasekara and Mujib Mashal

Mahinda Rajapaksa and his brother Gotabaya Rajapaksa, in Colombo, Sri Lanka, in 2019.Credit…Eranga Jayawardena/Associated Press

The Rajapaksa family has dominated Sri Lanka’s politics for much of the past two decades, and in recent years, it had increasingly ran the island nation’s government as a family business.

D.A. Rajapaksa, the family patriarch, was a lawmaker in the 1950s and ’60s. But it was Mahinda Rajapaksa, his son, who helped cement the family’s ascent to prominence, rising to become prime minister and then a two-term presidency from 2005 to 2015.

During his time as president, Mahinda Rajapaksa ended the country’s three-decade civil war by quashing the Tamil Tigers’ insurgency through brutal military force, in a campaign that led to accusations of widespread human rights abuses. His brother Gotabaya Rajapaksa served as his powerful defense secretary.

The Rajapaksas were briefly out of the government after losing in the 2015 elections, but they returned to power with Gotabaya Rajapaksa as their presidential candidate in 2019.

He won a resounding victory, in an election campaign that mixed nationalist appeals to the Buddhist Sinhalese, the majority ethnic group in Sri Lanka, and portrayals of him as the strongman the country needed after the deadly terrorist attacks on Easter Sunday just months before the elections.

Soon after, he brought his elder brother, Mahinda Rajapaksa, back to the government as prime minister and handed key positions to several other members of the family. As the country’s economy appeared to be headed for a crash, he made his brother Basil Rajapaksa the minister of finance last July.

In the face of intensifying protests, President Rajapaksa forced the family members in April to give up their seats in the government.

Officials close to him have said he saw completing his full term as a matter of honor. But opposition members and critics have said the president has also been trying to buy time and ensure the protection of the larger Rajapaksa dynasty.

Sri Lanka’s government has asked Russia for help to import fuel into the country.Credit…Atul Loke for The New York Times

One of the biggest reasons Sri Lankan residents took to the streets on Saturday is the country’s desperate need for fuel and other energy supplies. The South Asian nation has run out of foreign currency to pay for fuel, bringing its economy grinding to a halt.

The acute fuel shortages have meant that food and medicines can’t be transported. Fresh produce from farms can’t make it to cities. People can’t travel in cars, buses or trains. The government has even asked airlines to make sure they’re carrying enough fuel for their return flights because it can no longer provide jet fuel.

“People are very angry because once fuel is not available, they can’t do anything,” said W. A. Wijewardena, an economist and a former deputy governor for Sri Lanka’s central bank.

The situation is so bad that Sri Lanka’s president, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, has sought the help of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. On Wednesday, Mr. Rajapaksa said on Twitter that he had spoken to Mr. Putin by phone to ask him for “credit support” to import fuel in the country.

Mr. Rajapaksa’s decision to request help from Russia shows Sri Lanka’s limited options at a time when oil and gas prices have skyrocketed because of the war in Ukraine, experts say. Even the country’s closest ally, India, has refused to provide more fuel supplies unless Sri Lanka pays for it in advance. Since January, India has provided about $3.5 billion in food, fuel and medicines to the country.

Mr. Wijewardena said that in the days to come, Sri Lankans would have to sacrifice modern comforts. “We will have to walk because we cannot use our cars anymore,” he said.

“The liquid has overtaken the entirety of our modern economy.”

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in Colombo in May.Credit…Adnan Abidi/Reuters

One of the political casualties in Sri Lanka on Saturday was Ranil Wickremesinghe, a prime minister six times over whose leadership has been equated with Sri Lanka’s economic ambitions as well as its collapse.

Mr. Wickremesinghe announced his intention to resign on Twitter, saying he had accepted the recommendation of party leaders. Protesters entered his private home late Saturday and set it ablaze, said Dinouk Colombage, a spokesman for the prime minister, adding that Mr. Wickremesinghe was not at home at the time.

A 73-year-old political veteran, Mr. Wickremesinghe was sworn in as prime minister in May, after months of protests forced President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to remove his elder brother, Mahinda Rajapaksa, from the post. He quickly began discussions with the International Monetary Fund on the terms of an economic bailout.

The political alliance was immediately greeted with skepticism by protesters, who viewed Mr. Wickremesinghe as a protector of the Rajapaksas. Those concerns have not abated.

Mr. Wickremesinghe’s first turn as Sri Lanka’s prime minister came after the then president was assassinated by Tamil separatists during the country’s long civil war.

His last stint as prime minister began in 2015, in a coalition government that promised to support independent investigations into accusations of corruption and human rights abuses leveled against the Rajapaksa brothers. Instead, critics charged, the government, headed by President Maithripala Sirisena, was faulted for blunting those investigations.

Sri Lanka plunged into a constitutional crisis in 2018, when Mr. Sirisena suspended Parliament and ousted Mr. Wickremesinghe, a move that took the nation by surprise and was denounced as illegal by some government ministers.

Mr. Wickremesinghe remained in the prime minister’s official residence in Colombo with a small coterie of supporters and Buddhist monks until the Supreme Court ruled on the matter, determining that Mr. Sirisena had broken the law. Mr. Wickremesinghe was reinstated as prime minister, but the two men stopped communicating.

The Rajapaksas returned to power in landslide elections in 2019.

Before taking up the prime minister post again in May, Mr. Wickremesinghe acted as an informal adviser to the Rajapaksa government as it sought a way out of economic collapse. In accepting the job, he drew fresh ire from critics who said that without his support, Mr. Rajapaksa would have been forced to resign earlier.

Protests against the government in Sri Lanka escalated on Saturday when the largest demonstration seen in weeks filled the streets of Colombo, the capital. Thousands of protesters made their way to the island nation’s presidential residence and office buildings, furious over the government’s inability to address crippling economic turmoil.

Several dozen people were injured in clashes with security forces in the city, health officials said, after the police used tear gas and water cannons against protesters and fired shots into the air to try to disperse them.

Protesters broke through police barricades and entered the residence of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Videos on social media showed protesters jumping into the pool in the president’s residence, resting in bedrooms, and frying snacks in the presidential kitchen. They celebrated the news that the president, whose family has dominated politics in Sri Lanka for much of the past two decades, had been asked by political leaders to resign.

Tensions in the country have been high for months, as the government’s mismanagement of the economy started to hit harder than ever, with fuel running out and food running short.

Protesting the fuel and economic crisis in Colombo in April.Credit…Rebecca Conway for The New York Times

The political crisis in Sri Lanka escalated earlier this year as the devastating consequences of the government’s mismanagement of the economy started to hit harder than ever, with fuel running out and food running short.

As protests intensified in the spring, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa tried to offer incremental compromises by forcing some members of his cabinet to resign while shuffling others to new roles.

But protesters wanted the whole government to go, and the president was struggling to convince his elder brother and prime minister, Mahinda Rajapaksa, to give up his seat.

A protest camp developed along the scenic Galle Face at the heart of the capital, with protesters insisting they would not go home until the Rajapaksas left the government.

In May, Mahinda Rajapaksa was forced out as prime minister, but only after a large group of his supporters marched out of his residence and attacked the camps of peaceful protesters.

The clashes unleashed a wave of violence and vandalism across the country, raising fears that the country could break into outright anarchy. The prime minister fled to a military base in the middle of the night.

The president has held firm, hoping he could weather the protests and complete the remaining two years of his term. He appointed a new prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, who has tried to raise financial aid from allied countries and work with the International Monetary Fund to restructure the country’s immense foreign debt.

But the protests continued. On Saturday, the huge numbers of people descending on the capital, Colombo, were a clear sign that none of Mr. Rajapaksa’s moves were buying him much time.

The daily reality of people’s lives has grown only harsher in recent weeks, with shortages of fuel and essential medicine. Citizens have lined up at gas stations, often in vain. Local news media have reported the deaths of at least 15 people in fuel lines, from heatstroke and other causes, since the beginning of the crisis.

Clockwise from left, an empty cricket stadium, a protest over rising prices, a barely used airport and lining up for fuel. Credit…Photographs by Atul Loke for The New York Times

The international airport, built a decade ago in the name of Sri Lanka’s ruling Rajapaksa family, is devoid of passenger flights, its staff lingering idly in the cafe. The cricket stadium, also constructed on the family’s orders, has had only a few international matches and is so remote that arriving teams face the risk of wildlife attacks.

And then there is the port, the biggest of all the monuments to the Rajapaksas, a white elephant visited almost as much by actual elephants as by cargo ships before it was handed over to China in the face of impossible debt.

As Sri Lanka grapples with its worst ever economic crisis, with people waiting hours for fuel and cutting back on food, nowhere is the reckless spending that helped wreck the country more visible than in Hambantota, the Rajapaksa family’s home district in the south.

This enormous waste — more than $1 billion spent on the port, $250 million on the airport, nearly $200 million on underused roads and bridges, and millions more (figures vary) on the cricket stadium — made Hambantota a throne to the vanity of a political dynasty that increasingly ran the country as a family business.

The frenzy of building on borrowed money, with little hope of immediate return on the investment, was in essence the payoff for the family’s triumphant declaration of victory in 2009 after a three-decade-long civil war against the Tamil Tigers, an insurgency that had taken up the cause of discrimination against the ethnic Tamil minority.

With Mahinda Rajapaksa, the president, then at the peak of his powers, he did what many nationalist strongmen do: erect tributes to himself.

— Mujib Mashal, Skandha Gunasekara and Atul Loke

Lining up for fuel in Colombo in May.Credit…Atul Loke for The New York Times

For the past two weeks, only vehicles used for essential purposes have been allowed to fill up with fuel in Sri Lanka, virtually locking down the country of around 22 million people.

Last month, officials ordered government employees to work from home for two weeks to reduce the crowd on public transit, though workers deemed essential were exempt.

And skyrocketing fuel costs have led to food shortages. Many families have had to cut back on meals, and nearly five million people in Sri Lanka urgently require food, the United Nations has said.

As the island nation struggles to contain a worsening economic crisis, many residents say they are feeling the effects deeply. Thousands line up for days for fuel. Others are instead walking long distances to get where they need to go.

“We have no choice, so I walk for two to three miles every day,” said W.A. Wijewardena, an economist and a former deputy governor of Sri Lanka’s central bank. “All the systems in Sri Lanka have come to a standstill now. We don’t know what will happen.”

Despite years of warnings that the ruling Rajapaksa family was mismanaging the country, the pace of Sri Lanka’s economic collapse in the past few months has brought economic desperation that many describe as even worse and more widespread than during the nation’s three-decade civil war.

The country kept borrowing beyond its means to feed the needs of a bloated system, a large military and the vanities of a leadership that took on huge postwar construction projects with questionable economic logic. When coronavirus restrictions dried up the flow of tourism dollars and the debt piled up to unsustainable levels, leaders showed little urgency in finding solutions or seeking help.

Mr. Wijewardena, the economist, said the country’s leaders had to look inward to solve its problems. “Since we are threatened by a food crisis,” he said, “We will have to start cultivating food as much as possible within Sri Lanka.”