COLOMBO, Sri Lanka –
Sri Lankan protesters demanding the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa forced their way into his official residence and a nearby office on Saturday, local television reports said, as thousands rallied in the capital against the worst economic crisis in the island in recent history.
It was not clear if Rajapaksa was inside the residence in Colombo, but mobile phone footage showed a large number of people inside the well-fortified house and on the grounds outside.
A government spokesman, Mohana Samaranayake, said he had no information on whether Rajapaksa had left the residence.
Hundreds of protesters, some carrying national flags, also entered the president’s office in another nearby building, television footage showed. The protesters blame Rajapaksa for the economic problems and have occupied the entrance to his office building for the past three months to ask him to resign.
Video posted on social media showed hundreds of protesters running towards the president’s residence, shouting “I have to go home,” calling the president by his nickname. Outside the building, the barricades were knocked down.
At the president’s office, security personnel tried to stop protesters who broke through the fences and stormed the colonial-era Parliament building, which has been converted into the president’s office.
At least 34 people, including two police officers, were injured in a scuffle as protesters tried to enter the residence. Two of the injured are in critical condition, while others suffered minor injuries, said an official at the Colombo National Hospital who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Thousands of protesters had entered the capital Colombo from the suburbs on Saturday after police lifted an overnight curfew.
Last month, Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said the country’s economy had collapsed. The government’s negotiations with the International Monetary Fund have been complex because it has now entered into negotiations as a bankrupt state.
In April, Sri Lanka announced that it would suspend payment of foreign loans due to a shortage of foreign exchange. Its total external debt amounts to 51,000 million dollars, of which it must pay 28,000 million dollars by the end of 2027.
Police imposed a curfew in Colombo and other major urban areas on Friday night, but lifted it on Saturday morning amid objections from lawyers and opposition politicians who called it illegal.
US Ambassador to Sri Lanka Julie Chung called on people to protest peacefully on Friday, calling on the military and police to “give peaceful protesters the space and security to do so.”
“Chaos and force will not fix the economy or bring the political stability that Sri Lankans need at this time,” Chung said in a tweet.
The economic crisis has caused major shortages of basic goods such as fuel, cooking gas and medicine, forcing people to stand in long lines to buy limited supplies.
Months of protests have nearly dismantled the Rajapaksa political dynasty that has ruled Sri Lanka for most of the last two decades. One of Rajapaksa’s brothers resigned as prime minister last month, and two other brothers and a nephew resigned earlier from their cabinet posts.
President Rajapaksa has clung to power.
Wickremesinghe became prime minister in May and the protests temporarily subsided in the hope that he could find money for the country’s urgent needs, but now people want him to resign because he has not kept his promises.