Sri Lanka president flees country amid political, economic crisis

Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has fled the country, hours before his promised resignation amid widespread protests over his handling of the country’s worst economic crisis since independence in 1948.

Rajapaksa, his wife and two bodyguards flew on a Sri Lankan Air Force plane to Male, the capital of the Maldives, the Sri Lankan Air Force confirmed in a statement on Wednesday.

“Under the provisions of the Constitution and on a request by the government, the Sri Lanka Air Force provided a plane early today to fly the president, his wife and two security officials to the Maldives,” the statement said.