As the credibly accused war criminal Gotabaya Rajapaksa submitted his letter of resignation as President, the announcement triggered jubilation in Colombo, as protestors gathered outside the presidential secretariat, defying a city-wide curfew to celebrate. 

Crowds of protestors in the south set off firecrackers, shouted slogans and danced at the Gota Go Gama protest site, named in mockery of Rajapaksa's first name. 

Amidst the chaos in Colombo, Sri Lankan war criminal and army commander Sarath Fonseka has claimed he is ready to become President if supported by the majority and may be supported by the formerly Rajapaksa-aligned Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP).

The Mullaitivu court has ordered the removal of all new constructions, including an illegally built Buddhist shrine, on Kurunthurmalai, a hill-top site of an ancient Tamil temple in the district’s Thannimurippu area.

Despite an ongoing court injunction against altering the hill, Sinhala Buddhist monks with the support of the Sri Lankan military and archaeology department carried out the construction of a Buddhist shrine on the temple’s land. During the construction, Tamils were also barred from accessing the Athi Aiyanar temple for worship.

The current speaker of the Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed announced that Sri Lanka’s embattled president “has resigned” just moments after he landed in Singapore as he fled the island.

In a tweet sent out today, Nasheed said Gotabaya Rajapaksa “would not have resigned if he were still in Sri Lanka,” adding that the former defence secretary was “fearful of losing his life”.

Responding to the ongoing political and economic crisis in Sri Lanka, Tamil civil society groups have issued a group statement urging all actors to seize this historic opportunity for “real change for an island plagued by decades of ethnic conflict”.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa has resigned as Sri Lanka’s President after he fled the island amidst mass protests demanding his resignation. 

The resignation letter was reportedly sent by email to the speaker of parliament. The resignation will be formally announced on Friday.

Rajapaksa has been trying to flee Sri Lanka since Saturday after tens of thousands of protesters stormed his official residence. 

The Sri Lankan army warned that troops were “legitimately empowered to exercise their force,” after it claimed two rifles were snatched from soldiers by protestors on Wednesday.

Sri Lanka’s besieged president Gotabaya Rajapaksa has reportedly left the Maldives, where he fled to earlier this week and is currently on his way to Singapore.

According to the Associated Press, the war crimes accused president will then fly to Saudi Arabia, from Singapore.

Reports from Maldivian journalists suggest that Rajapaksa and his wife are on Saudi Arabian Airlines flight SV788 from Male to Singapore. He will land in Singapore shortly before 7PM local time.

Amidst excessive efforts of the Sri Lankan state to suppress the work of journalists in the northeast, journalists of the Mullaitivu Press Club, Tamil university students, and Tamil journalists in Batticaloa protested to condemn the suppression of media and the recent attacks on journalists by Sri Lankan security forces in the south. 

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, stressed that the “developments in Sri Lanka are its internal affair.”

The statement comes in response to an escalating political crisis. Acting President, Ranil Wickremesinghe, imposed a state of emergency and curfew in an attempt to curtail protests. Wickremesinghe has also ordered the military to do whatever is necessary to restore order.

Numerous countries have expressed concern regarding recent developments, emphasizing the importance of respecting human rights and the rule of law.