Maldives-Singapore-Saudi Arabia: Gotabaya continues jumping nations as Sri Lanka burns

Colombo: Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who had fled to the Maldives, on Thursday took a Saudi Airlines plane that will take him and his wife to Singapore and then Saudi Arabia, a Maldives government officials said on condition of anonymity.

Sources have refuted media reports of onward travel to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. Rajapaksa and his wife will remain in Singapore, they said.

Rajapaksa had been in Maldives for one day after fleeing Sri Lanka in the early hours of Wednesday — the same day he had said he would resign.

But by Thursday, no formal resignation letter had been received by the Sri Lankan parliament’s speaker, raising questions about the intentions of an apparently self-exiled leader who appointed the prime minister as acting president during his absence from his island nation.

Shortly after Rajapaksa left the country, protesters stormed Acting President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s office to demand his removal. Wickremesinghe responded by calling a nationwide curfew overnight.