Sri Lanka on Wednesday declared a state of emergency after President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country, reported Scroll.
As per the report, the 73-year-old leader left for the Maldives hours before he was expected to resign amid widespread protests over his handling of a devastating economic crisis.
Thousands of protestors took to the streets of capital Colombo, demanding Rajapaksa’s immediate resignation.
Last week, the president had said he will step down on Wednesday to make way for a “peaceful transition of power” in Sri Lanka after protestors stormed his official residence.
Sri Lanka has run out of foreign-exchange reserves that has limited essential imports of fuel, food and medicine, plunging it into the worst economic meltdown in 70 years.
As per the report by Scroll, the island nation’s inflation rate touched 54.6 percent year-over-year in June while food inflation shot up to 80 percent.
