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Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who fled his official residence last Saturday before thousands of people stormed it in a popular revolt, has arrived by air in the Maldives, local media reported early Wednesday.
Together with his wife and a bodyguard, Rajapaksa landed at the airport of the capital Malé aboard a military plane from Sri Lanka. However, it is not known where he was transferred to shortly after amid a heavy police cordon, according to information from airport officials picked up by the media.
The president fled his official residence in Colombo last Saturday, hours before it was stormed by thousands of people desperate for the crisis that has left Sri Lanka immersed in a challenging economic and institutional situation.
Rajapaksa's resignation, first announced by Parliament and confirmed shortly after by the Prime Minister's office this past weekend, is expected to be effective as of Wednesday.
Sri Lanka's political parties agreed Monday to appoint a new interim president on July 20 to end the power vacuum left by Rajapaksa's departure.
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