Sri Lanka President Gotabaya Rajapaksa was on his way to Singapore on Thursday and was expected to stay there for the time being, a Sri Lankan government source told Reuters, after the president fled to the Maldives from his home country.
Rajapaksa had repeatedly assured the speaker of parliament that he would step down on Wednesday, but his resignation letter had not arrived as of Thursday.
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka's anti-government demonstrators said Thursday they were ending their occupation of official buildings, as they vowed to press on with their bid to bring down the president and prime minister in the face of a dire economic crisis.
The United Kingdom, Singapore and Bahrain have asked its citizens to avoid non-essential travel to Sri Lanka as an economic collapse in the country have led to massive protests. The island nation is experiencing a severe economic crisis which has led to shortages of basic necessities including medicines, cooking gas, fuel and food.
