<\/p>\n
Crisis-hit Sri Lanka declared a nationwide state of emergency on Wednesday, hours after President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country on a military jet in the face of a public revolt against his government for mishandling the country\u2019s economy, the Prime Minister\u2019s office said.<\/p>\n
The Prime Minister\u2019s office informed the media organisations that the state of emergency in the country and a curfew in the Western province had been imposed.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince the president is out of the country, an emergency has been declared to deal with the situation in the country,\u201d Prime Minister\u2019s spokesman Dinouk Colombage said.<\/p>\n
The island nation is mired in a deep political and economic crisis as the country\u2019s president flew out of the country days after a huge crowd of protesters stormed his residence.<\/p>\n
The country with a 22 million population has suffered months of lengthy blackouts, acute food and fuel shortages, and galloping inflation in its most painful downturn on record.<\/p>\n
The Sri Lankan citizens have continued to demand the resignation of President Rajapaksa, whose government has been blamed for the chronic mismanagement of the country\u2019s finances.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s how the crisis unfolded in Sri Lanka:<\/p>\n
April 1: State of emergency<\/p>\n
Rajapaksa declared a temporary state of emergency, giving security forces sweeping powers to arrest and detain suspects, after a spate of protests.<\/p>\n
April 3: Cabinet resigned<\/p>\n
Almost all of Sri Lanka\u2019s cabinet resigned, leaving Rajapaksa and his brother Mahinda \u2014 the prime minister \u2014 isolated.<\/p>\n
April 5: President Rajapaksa loses majority<\/p>\n
President Rajapaksa lost his parliamentary majority as former allies urge him to quit. He lifts the state of emergency.<\/p>\n
April 12: Foreign debt default<\/p>\n
The Sri Lankan government announced it defaulted on its foreign debt of $51 billion as a \u201clast resort\u201d after running out of foreign exchange to import desperately needed goods.<\/p>\n
May 9: Day of Violence<\/p>\n
A mob of government loyalists bussed in from the countryside attacks peaceful protesters camped outside the president\u2019s seafront office in Colombo.<\/p>\n
Nine people are killed and hundreds more injured in the reprisal attacks that follow, with crowds targeting those responsible for the violence and setting fire to the homes of lawmakers.<\/p>\n
Mahinda Rajapaksa resigned as prime minister and has to be rescued by troops after thousands of protesters stormed his residence in Colombo.<\/p>\n
Mahinda was replaced by Ranil Wickremesinghe, a political veteran who had already served several terms as premier.<\/p>\n
May 10: Shoot-to-kill orders<\/p>\n
The defence ministry ordered troops to shoot on sight anyone involved in looting or \u201ccausing harm to life\u201d.<\/p>\n
June 27: Sri Lanka suspended fuel sales<\/p>\n
The Sri Lankan government said the country ran out of fuel and thus halted all petrol sales except for essential services.<\/p>\n
July 1: New inflation record<\/p>\n
The government published data showing inflation has hit a record high for the ninth consecutive month, a day after the IMF asks Sri Lanka to rein in prices.<\/p>\n
July 9: President Rajapaksa\u2019s home stormed<\/p>\n
President Rajapaksa fled from his official residence in Colombo with the assistance of troops, shortly before demonstrators storm the compound. He was taken to an undisclosed location. Footage from inside the residence shows jubilant protesters jumping in the pool and exploring its stately bedrooms. PM Wickremesinghe\u2019s residence was also set on fire on the same day.<\/p>\n
July 13: Rajapaksa flees<\/p>\n
President Rajapaksa fled to the Maldives on a military aircraft, accompanied by his wife and two bodyguards.<\/p>\n
His departure came after a humiliating airport standoff in Colombo, where immigration staff did not allow VIP services and insisted all passengers go through public counters.<\/p>\n
Sri Lanka seeks to elect a new president<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the country is considering to elect a new president on July 20.<\/p>\n
Under the Sri Lankan Constitution, if both the president and prime minister resign, the Speaker of parliament will serve as acting president for a maximum of 30 days.<\/p>\n
The Parliament will elect a new president within 30 days from one of its members, who will hold the office for the remaining two years of the current term.<\/p>\n
The anti-government protesters continue to occupy the three main buildings in the capital, the President\u2019s House, the presidential secretariat and the prime minister\u2019s official residence, Temple Trees, calling for their resignations.<\/p>\n
Sri Lanka, a country of 22 million people, is under the grip of an unprecedented economic turmoil, the worst in seven decades, leaving millions struggling to buy food, medicine, fuel and other essentials. Prime Minister Wickremesinghe last week said Sri Lanka is now a bankrupt country.<\/p>\n
\n\t<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Crisis-hit Sri Lanka declared a nationwide state of emergency on Wednesday, hours after President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country on a military jet in the face of a public revolt against his government for mishandling the country\u2019s economy, the Prime Minister\u2019s office said. The Prime Minister\u2019s office informed the media organisations that the state of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1148135,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[187],"tags":[883,6960,20351,4378,275,4379,2742],"class_list":["post-1148133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-politics","tag-declares","tag-emergency","tag-flees","tag-lanka","tag-president","tag-sri","tag-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1148133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1148133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1148133\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1148133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1148133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1148133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}