• Sri Lanka’s acting President, Ranil Wickremesinghe, has imposed a state of emergency.
• Rajapaksa went abroad this week to avoid a mass uprising against his government.
• He has said that he took “all possible steps” to stop the economic disaster.

Sri Lanka’s acting President, Ranil Wickremesinghe, has imposed a state of emergency in Sri Lanka, according to a government notification posted late on Sunday, as his administration works to suppress civil unrest and address the island nation’s economic problems.

The notification read, “It is expedient, so to do, in the interests of public security, the protection of public order and the maintenance of supplies and services essential to the life of the community.”

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Gotabaya Rajapaksa went abroad this week to avoid a mass uprising against his government. He has said that he took “all possible steps” to stop the economic disaster that has hit the island nation.

On Friday, parliament accepted Rajapaksa’s resignation. A week ago, hundreds of thousands of people protesting against the government surrounded his mansion and businesses in Colombo.

On Saturday, Sri Lanka’s parliament started voting for a new president. At the same time, oil supplies arrived to help the crisis-torn country.

Wickremesinghe, a Rajapaksa loyalist, is one of the main candidates to take the presidency full-time, but demonstrators also want him out of office, creating the possibility of fresh turmoil if he is elected.

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