Sri Lanka‘s Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa has offered to resign amid the island nation’s worst economic crisis since independence that has led to widespread protests, a government official says.
“The prime minister has sent his letter of resignation to the president,” the official said on Monday, declining to be named.
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa is the prime minister’s younger brother.
Supporters of the Rajapaksas and their ruling party on Monday stormed a protest site in the commercial capital Colombo, attacking anti-government demonstrators and clashing with police who used tear gas and water cannon to drive them back.
Protests against the Rajapaksa government have raged for weeks amid the financial crisis, with thousands demanding the Rajapaksas and their influential family quit for mishandling the economy.
On Monday, hundreds of ruling party supporters rallied outside the official residence of the prime minister, before marching to an anti-government protest site outside the presidential office.
At the “Gota Go Gama” protest site, a tent village that emerged that last month to become the focal point of national protests, pro-government supporters – some armed with iron bars – attacked anti-government demonstrators, according to a Reuters witness.
Police used dozens of tear gas rounds and water cannon to break up the confrontation, the first major clash between pro-and anti-government camps after a wave of nationwide protests began in late March.
At least nine people injured in the clashes and facing breathing difficulties after inhaling tear were taken to Colombo’s National Hospital, a hospital official said, declining to be named.
“This is a peaceful protest,” Pasindu Senanayaka, an anti-government protestor told Reuters. “They attacked Gota Go Gama and set fire to our tents.”
“We are helpless now, we are begging for help,” Senanayaka said, as rings of black smoke spiralled out of a burning tent nearby and parts of the protest camp lay in disarray.
Dozens of paramilitary troops with riot shield and helmets were deployed to keep both groups apart after the initial clashes, and a curfew has been imposed across Sri Lanka’s Western Province, which includes Colombo, a police spokesman said.
Facing escalating anti-government protests, Rajapaksa’s government last week declared a state of emergency for the second time in five weeks, but public discontent has steadily simmered, most recently because of a lack of cooking gas.
Sri Lankan energy companies said on Monday they were running low on stocks of liquid petroleum gas mainly used in cooking, as shortages of foreign exchange put renewed pressure on the island nation.
Hit hard by the pandemic, rising oil prices and tax cuts, Sri Lanka has as little as $US50 million of useable foreign reserves, Finance Minister Ali Sabry said last week.
State-run Litro Gas chairman Vijitha Herath told Reuters Sri Lanka’s foreign exchange crisis was causing a severe gas shortage with the company struggling to find adequate dollars for payments.
“With the involvement of the President we will get $7 million from the central bank to pay for a 3,500 metric tonne (MT) shipment, which is expected to arrive on Tuesday,” he said.
Long queues for cooking gas seen in recent days have frequently turned into impromptu protests as frustrated consumers block roads.
Sri Lanka has approached the International Monetary Fund for a bailout, and will begin a virtual summit on Monday with officials from the multilateral lender aimed at securing emergency assistance.
