Sri Lankan President lands at Maldives international airport

Colombo: Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa landed at the Velana International Airport in the Maldives early on Wednesday, Xinhua reported citing the Maldivian media.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa took off from the country for the Maldives on an Antonov-32 military aircraft with his wife and a bodyguard who were among four passengers on board, the media reports stated citing immigration sources. Rajapaksa on Monday signed his resignation letter which will be handed over to the Speaker of Parliament to make a public announcement on Wednesday.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on Wednesday will be sworn in as the President for a temporary period till a new President is elected by Parliament on July 20 and nominations for the presidency will be called for on July 19.

In this year Sri Lanka has been suffering a severe economic crisis which has led to public protests.

Sri Lanka's speaker of parliament Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena has said political party leaders have decided to elect a new president on July 20 through a vote in parliament.

Sri Lanka is suffering its worst economic crisis since gaining independence in 1948, which comes on the heels of successive waves of COVID-19, threatening to undo years of development and severely undermining the country's ability to achieve the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

In the wake of record food price inflation, skyrocketing fuel costs and widespread commodity shortages, some 61 per cent of households are regularly using coping strategies to cut down on costs, such as reducing the amount they eat and consuming increasingly less nutritious meals.