Maldives

Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has fled the country hours before he was due to step down, after...

Mahinda Rajapaksa, the president's elder brother, resigned as prime minister in May after protests against the family turned violent. That would make Wickremesinghe the acting president, although he has also offered to resign. Petrol has been severely rationed and long lines have formed in front of shops selling cooking gas. In May, the Rajapaksa government appointed Mohammed Nasheed, the speaker of the Maldives parliament and a former president, to help coordinate foreign assistance for crisis-hit Sri Lanka. He remained in hiding at a military base in the east of the country for some days before returning to Colombo. A government source and a person close to Rajapaksa said he was in Male, the capital of the Maldives. The president would most likely proceed to another Asian country from there, the government source said.

A curfew has also been imposed across Sri Lanka's Western Province, which includes the capital Colombo, and comes as the country's president is expected to ...

The island has nearly exhausted its already scarce supplies of petrol. "It's a problem." "How are people going to run the country without money?" The 73-year-old, his wife and two bodyguards took a military aircraft to the neighbouring Maldives, immigration sources told news agency AFP. "We can't tear up our constitution," he said in his statement. "We can't allow fascists to take over.

Former Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who landed in the Maldivian capital Male on a Sri Lankan Air Force plane, will be leaving for Singapore on ...

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Sri Lanka's President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled overnight to Maldives on an Air Force aircraft. According to reports, Gotabaya was taken to a resort after ...

And at the same time, Sri Lanka never shut its doors to anti-Gayoom politicians. The former Maldives leader Maumoon Abdul Gayoom also had close relations with Sri Lankan leaders during his three-decade-long grip on power. Other reports had said he was thwarted at the airport while trying to leave for a country in the Middle East. Why did he ultimately choose the Maldives?

Sri Lanka's President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled overnight to Maldives on an Air Force aircraft. According to reports, Gotabaya was taken to a resort after ...

And at the same time, Sri Lanka never shut its doors to anti-Gayoom politicians. One news outlet reported that the Foreign Ministry was maintaining silence on Gotabaya’s arrival. The former Maldives leader Maumoon Abdul Gayoom also had close relations with Sri Lankan leaders during his three-decade-long grip on power. Other reports had said he was thwarted at the airport while trying to leave for a country in the Middle East. Why did he ultimately choose the Maldives? Last month, Prime Minister Wickremesinghe appointed Nasheed to coordinate international relief efforts for Sri Lanka’s beleaguered and shortage-hit economy. Sri Lanka’s President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled overnight to Maldives on an Air Force aircraft.

Embattled President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has landed in the neighbouring Maldives, local officials said, ahead of his expected resignation after months of ...

The island has nearly exhausted its already scarce supplies of petrol. "It's a problem." "How are people going to run the country without money?" The 73-year-old, his wife and two bodyguards took a military aircraft to the neighbouring Maldives, immigration sources told news agency AFP. "We can't tear up our constitution," he said in his statement. "We can't allow fascists to take over.

Rajapaksa landed at the Velana International Airport in the Maldives early Wednesday. The Prime Minister's Office also confirmed that Rajapaksa had left the ...

The police fired tear gas on protesters who broke through a barricade and stormed the prime minister's office, calling for his resignation. Abeywardena also said Rajapaksa has informed him over the telephone that he will resign today as promised. Wickremesinghe has also pledged that he would step down as prime minister when an all-party government is formed.

Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled to the Maldives on Wednesday amid a popular uprising brought on by an economic collapse, bringing to an ...

Mahinda Rajapaksa, president from 2005-2015 and later prime minister under his brother, resigned in May after protests against the family turned violent. A large group of security personnel armed with assault rifles sat in a room. What a tragedy." What a farce. "It feels pretty marvellous, people were trying to take this place for about three hours," said college student Sanchuka Kavinda, 25, standing next to a mangled, open gate of the prime minister's office. I'm working to do that," he said.

His elder brother, Mahinda Rajapaksa, the family's political flagbearer of sorts, resigned as prime minister in May. He then fled to a naval base for security ...

On July 9, hundreds of thousands of protesters stormed the presidential palace in Colombo, hours after president Gotabaya Rajapaksa was moved to the army headquarters. Protesters have been seeking the removal of the Rajapaksa brothers. “The grounds have now been taken over by protesters who are gathering in celebration, following a standoff with armed police at the gates of the property. The Sri Lankan president was yesterday stopped by immigration officials from leaving the country. Their eldest sibling, Chamal Rajapaksa, was the country’s minister of irrigation till April this year. He was received by Maldivian government officials at Male’s Velana airport, the report said.

Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa was expected to head to Singapore after fleeing to the Maldives in the early hours of Wednesday, a government source ...

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Gotabaya Rajapaksa has arrived in the Maldives amid mass protests over Sri Lanka's economic crisis.

But he also lacks public support and there is deep public suspicion of politicians in general. But Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena is an ally of the Rajapaksas, and it is unclear whether the public would accept his authority. Whoever does become acting president has 30 days to hold an election for a new president from among members of parliament. The prime minister is considered the president's deputy in parliament. He is accused of human rights abuses during the war and also targeting those who dissented, but he has always denied those accusations. - One family of brothers has dominated for years: Mahinda Rajapaksa became a hero among the majority Sinhalese in 2009 when his government defeated Tamil separatist rebels after years of bitter and bloody civil war.

New Delhi– India on Wednesday “categorically denied baseless and speculative media reports” that it had facilitated Sri Lankan President Gotabaya ...

Anadolu AgencySri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa resigned on Wednesday after massive nationwide protests over the rampant political corruption and the ...

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Sri Lankan president Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country on Wednesday, hours before his scheduled formal resignation following weeks of growing protests against ...

Rajapaksa’s decision to leave the country may have been prompted by concerns that he could be arrested after leaving office. The protest movement against Rajapaksa, a former military leader who played a decisive role in ending Sri Lanka’s decades-long civil war, emerged in early 2022 as a reaction to Sri Lanka’s financial crisis. The parliament is slated to vote for his successor on July 20.

Maldivians voice outrage as disgraced Sri Lankan leader Gotabaya Rajapaksa flees to the Maldives.

Nasheed was among several dissidents who found refuge in Sri Lanka during the Maldives’ pro-democracy movement in the early 2000s. Others argued that the Maldives could not bar entry to a sitting Sri Lankan president in the absence of an arrest warrant. Local media reported that Nasheed was spotted at the airport before the military plane landed at approximately 3am local time (22:00 GMT on Tuesday). Ismail Naseer, the editor of the Maldives’ main newspaper, asked in an op-ed: “Why should Maldivians become the intermediary for fleeing easily after running a nation into the ground? Concerns were also raised over the safety of an estimated 8,000 Maldivians who reside in Sri Lanka amid the continuing unrest. Rajapaksa fled to the neighbouring Indian Ocean archipelago hours before his promised resignation over Sri Lanka’s worst economic crisis in decades.

Sri Lanka President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who fled to the Maldives on Wednesday, was expected to fly to Singapore today amid a worsening crisis back home.

Sri Lanka's state-run TV network, Rupavahini Corporation, briefly suspended its telecast after protesters entered the TV station. But we must respect the Constitution," he said. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has also informed Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena to nominate a Prime Minister who is acceptable to both the government and the Opposition.