Both politically and economically, things will get worse before they get better
, Sri Lanka’s prime minister, for weeks. Even his own brother, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who is also in the protesters’ sights, had hinted that the time might have come for a graceful exit. Gota, as the president is known, apparently hoped that sacrificing his brother would mollify a public furious with his government’s handling of a worseningMahinda refused to budge. On the morning of May 9th he hosted hundreds of supporters at his residence.
Some 220 people were injured as the violence continued into the evening and eight died, including a member of parliament who shot and killed a protester before taking his own life as a crowd surrounded his house, according to police reports. The attorney-general has called for an investigation into who ordered the attacks on the seafront protest camps.
The government’s foreign reserves are down to $50m—not even enough to cover a day’s worth of imports. It has burned through all its cash in recent months in a doomed effort to prop up the currency and service its huge foreign debts. Onit conceded defeat and said it would stop paying interest, seek a bail-out from the IMF and ask creditors, including China and India, to restructure their loans.
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