Sri Lanka ministers offer resignation of president and prime minister | Abroad

The Minister of Education announced this today. It is not yet clear whether the president has accepted the resignation.

Three other members of the powerful Rajapaksa family were among the ministers to tender their resignations. They managed the Finance, Agriculture and Sports portfolios.

The president declared a state of emergency in Sri Lanka on Saturday after days of protests and imposed a curfew from Saturday evening to Monday morning. About 750 protesters, including lawmakers including opposition leader Sajith Premadasa, did not care.

They protested in Colombo, the country’s largest city, against inflation and the president’s economic policies, among other things. Several protesters called for the overthrow of the Rajapaksa family, which has been back in power since November 2019.

According to the Daily Mirror, social media such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are no longer available or hardly accessible in the country.

Sri Lanka’s inflation rate is now around 19 percent. The country also suffers from shortages of energy, food, medicine and fuel. The island of 22 million people has seen 70 percent of foreign currency evaporate within two years and can no longer afford to import essential products.

Sri Lanka has already turned to China, India and the International Monetary Fund for help. India is helping with a €900 million loan to ship rice and other basic needs to Sri Lanka, among other things. Rice is already twice as expensive as it was a year ago.