The anti-government protesters in Sri Lanka, who stormed embattled President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's official residence, have claimed to have recovered millions of rupees inside his mansion, according to a media report on Sunday, July 10. In an unverified video that is being shared on social media, protesters can be seen counting the currency notes that were allegedly unearthed at the Gotabaya residence. The recovered money was said to be handed over to the security units, the Sri Lankan newspaper Daily Mirror reported.
Hundreds of anti-government protesters on Saturday, July 9, stormed into Rajapaksa's residence in central Colombo after breaking the barricades, demanding his resignation over the island nation's worst economic crisis in recent memory. Another group of protesters entered the private residence of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and set it on fire.
The president's whereabouts are still not known. His only communication since the protesters stormed into the city has been with the Speaker of Parliament Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena, who announced late Saturday night that the president would resign on Wednesday. President Rajapaksa informed the Speaker about this decision to quit after Abeywardena wrote to him seeking his resignation following the all-party meeting of leaders held Saturday evening. The Speaker will become the acting President in the absence of both the President and the Prime Minister. Later, an election among MPs is expected to take place for a new president.
In May, Gotabaya Rajapaksa's elder brother and then Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa had to quit in the face of massive anti-government protests. The expected exit of Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Wednesday and the resignation of Mahinda Rajapaksa as Prime Minister in May is a dramatic fall for a powerful family that has dominated Sri Lankan politics for more than a decade.
Sri Lanka, a country of 22 million people, is under the grip of an unprecedented economic turmoil, the worst in seven decades, crippled by an acute shortage of foreign exchange that has left it struggling to pay for essential imports of fuel, and other essentials. The country announced that it is suspending repayment of nearly USD 7 billion in foreign debt due for this year out of about USD 25 billion due through 2026. Sri Lanka's total foreign debt stands at USD 51 billion.