Angry protestors try to storm Sri Lanka president’s house following blackout

Following Sri Lanka’s longest power blackout ever recorded, enraged protestors tried to storm the president’s house in Colombo yesterday. Unidentified activists had called for a rally against the president and his family on social media. One resident who lives nearby told AFP he cannot return home because his area is barricaded.

The resident said the protestors are “shouting for the president and his family to step down”. This news comes after several essential services in Sri Lanka were impacted by the blackout, and shortages on essential items. State-run hospitals stopped conducting surgeries because they ran out of life-saving medicines. Diesel stopped being on sale, and private bus owners said they wouldn’t be able to operate if they didn’t get supplies by yesterday evening.

Now, Sri Lankans have reportedly called for all members of the president’s powerful family to step down, and have called the president a ‘lunatic’.

“Lunatic, lunatic, go home”.

One of the president’s brothers is Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister, while another is the agriculture minister. The president’s nephew holds the cabinet post for sports. Official sources told AFP that the president was not at home during the protests. AFP reports that anti-riot squads beat back demonstrators after they blocked the roads for more than two hours.

SOURCE: AFP