“Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa left his headquarters surrounded by demonstrators,” the French Press Agency (AFP) said, citing a source in the Sri Lankan Ministry of Defense.

Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe reportedly said on 22 June that “the country’s economy has collapsed”, noting that “we are no longer able to pay even for oil imports.”

On 19 May, Sri Lanka’s Central Bank Governor Nandal Weerasinghe announced that “there will be no debt service payments until Sri Lanka is able to restructure its $51 billion foreign debt” and expressed his hope that “we have reached agreements with our creditors in about six months, and our position is very clear.”

The Sri Lankan authorities are unable to finance their imports, and their population has been suffering from food, medicine and fuel shortages, prolonged power outages and record inflation for months.