Protesters against the Sri Lankan government announced on Thursday (14) the end of the occupation of public buildings, but vowed to continue to press for the president. gotabaya Rajapaksa resigned in the face of serious economic and political crisis. He fled the country.

“We have peacefully left the Presidential Palace, the presidential secretariat and the office of the prime minister with immediate effect, but we will continue our fight,” the spokesperson for the protesters said.

A crowd entered the presidential palace over the weekend, and protests forced head of state Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee to the Maldives as activists broke into Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s office on Wednesday.

This Thursday, the Sri Lankan president left the Maldives on a Saudi airline flight bound for Singapore.

Rajapaksa, the 13th, promised to resign on Wednesday, but has yet to make an official statement as Sri Lanka is experiencing the most serious economic and political crisis in its history.

The island’s population of about 22 million faces a shortage of essential products due to a lack of foreign exchange for imports. Protesters attribute the crisis to Rajapaksa’s mismanagement.

After months of protests, protesters stormed the president’s official residence on Saturday, forcing him to leave the country. In the following days, the office of prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was also raided.

The prime minister, whom the president appointed acting head of state in his absence, urged protesters to leave public buildings and ordered security forces to do “whatever it takes to restore order”.

A prominent Buddhist monk, who supports the protests, has called for the more than 200-year-old presidential palace to be returned to the authorities to ensure that the valuable works of art are preserved.

“This building is a national treasure and must be preserved,” said the monk Omalpe Sobitha. “A proper inspection should be done and the property should be returned to the state.”

Since the president’s escape, the complex has become open to the public and thousands of people have passed through the official residence.

After the prime minister’s office was raided, Wickremesinghe announced that protesters wanted to prevent him from working as interim president.

The curfew was lifted early on Thursday. Police said a soldier and an agent were injured in clashes near Parliament.

Unlike other institutions that protesters occupied without issue, the attempt to occupy the Legislative headquarters was unsuccessful.

Colombo’s main hospital said 85 people were hospitalized Wednesday with injuries and a man suffocated to death after breathing tear gas in the prime minister’s office.

boos and insults

On Thursday, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, his wife Ioma, and two of their bodyguards were taken to the plane minutes before takeoff from Velana International Airport in the Maldives’ capital, Malé.

According to local media reports, the Sinhalese were booed and insulted when they arrived in the Maldives on Wednesday. A group staged a protest to demand that the local government not allow their presence on the island.

He spent the night in a luxury hotel in the Maldives before leaving for Singapore; this is a richness that contrasts with the great crisis its citizens are experiencing: 80% of Sri Lankans have to skip a meal a day due to the disastrous economic situation.

The country has declared a debt moratorium. The lack of foreign exchange caused a fuel shortage that nearly paralyzed the country.

Security forces sources in Colombo said his resignation letter has already been prepared and will be released after Rajapaksa’s authorization.

Diplomatic sources say Rajapaksa has sought a US visa, but these attempts have so far failed as he renounced his US citizenship in 2019 before running for president.