Sri Lanka’s leader to resign, ally says

With his home overrun by protesters, his powerful family on the run and the nation he once controlled in revolt against him, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa of Sri Lanka agreed Saturday to resign, according to the country’s top lawmaker.

Rajapaksa’s apparent decision to step down was the culmination of months of public pressure and protest. Thousands of people Saturday braved police curfew, fuel shortage and a shutdown of public trains to descend on the capital, Colombo, to register their fury over the government’s inability to address a crippling economic crisis.

Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena, the speaker of Parliament and an ally of the president, said Rajapaksa agreed he would resign Wednesday “to ensure a peaceful transition of power” after the country’s top political leaders urged him to step down. There was no direct confirmation about the potential resignation from Rajapaksa, who is in hiding and who has defied previous calls to leave office.

Sri Lanka has run out of foreign exchange reserves for imports of essential items like fuel and medicine, and the United Nations has warned that more than one-quarter of Sri Lanka’s 21 million people are at risk of food shortages. The protesters blame the Rajapaksas, who increasingly ran the government like a family business, for their misery.

The country’s downward spiral has played out as high energy prices and food inflation has afflicted much of the world. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the sanctions that followed, have sent energy prices flying, while global food supply chains are increasingly dwindling under stress and demand.