Sri Lanka’s President and Prime Minister to Step Down Over Tumultuous Economic Protests

Sri Lanka’s president and prime minister agreed on Saturday to resign after the country’s most chaotic day in months of political turmoil, with protesters storming both officials’ homes and setting fire to one of the buildings.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said he will leave office once a new government is in place, and hours later the Speaker of parliament said President Gotabaya Rajapaksa would step down on Wednesday.

Thousands of protesters entered the capital, Colombo, and swarmed into Rajapaksa’s fortified residence. Videos showed jubilant crowds splashing in the garden pool, lying on beds and using their cellphone cameras to capture the moment. Some made tea, while others issued statements from a conference room demanding that the president and prime minister go.