However, the protesters say they will not leave the luxury houses until both leaders vacate their posts. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa is expected to step down on Wednesday, while Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe tweeted his resignation on Saturday but did not confirm his departure date.
The resignations mark a major victory for the protesters, but the future of the country’s 22 million people is uncertain as they struggle to buy basic goods, fuel and medicine.
Here’s the latest.
Over the weekend, tens of thousands of protesters gathered outside the president’s office and residence before breaking through security cordons.
Shocking images shared on social media showed them singing protest songs and chanting slogans calling for Rajapaksa to resign. Other photos show groups of demonstrators setting up barbecues to grill and cook food.
But the most dramatic footage showed protesters swimming in the president’s private pool.
Sri Lanka’s armed forces took Rajapaksa to a navy ship minutes before protesters stormed his residence, a senior military source told CNN on Sunday.
The president came down from his bedroom on the top floor of the palace and left the premises moments before the demonstrators broke through the compound’s first barrier, the source added.
The naval ship is currently at sea near Colombo in Sri Lankan territorial waters, they said.
Later on Saturday, protesters targeted Wickremesinghe’s house, setting fire to his private residence on Fifth Lane, an affluent neighborhood in the capital. Live video seen by CNN showed the building engulfed in flames as crowds gathered at the scene and shouted.
The leaders were not at their residences when the buildings were breached and had been moved to safe locations before the attacks, according to security officials.
At least 55 people were injured in the protests, according to local medics on Saturday, who said the number included an eastern Sri Lankan lawmaker and three people with gunshot wounds. Videos circulated on social media purporting to show soldiers firing on protesters outside the president’s residence, but the army denied opening fire.
Protests have escalated in Sri Lanka since March, when public anger erupted in the streets over rising food costs, fuel shortages and power outages as the country struggled to service its debts.
What is happening to the government?
Rajapaksa will officially step down on July 13, officials said after an emergency meeting called by Parliament Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena.
Wickremesinghe tweeted that he was stepping down “to ensure the continuation of government, including the safety of all citizens,” but did not give a date.
Four other ministers also resigned over the weekend – the latest in a mass exodus of senior officials. On 3 April, the entire cabinet of the Sri Lankan government was effectively dissolved due to mass resignations of senior ministers.
Some 26 cabinet ministers resigned this weekend, including the governor of the central bank, as well as the president’s nephew, who criticized the apparent social media blackout as something he would “never condone”.
Analysts and observers now say Parliament Speaker Abeywardena is likely to take over the country on an interim basis until the next president is elected by lawmakers to replace Rajapaksa and complete the remainder of his term, which is due to end in 2024.
The new president will be elected on July 20 after the resumption of parliament on July 16, Abeywardena said in a statement on Monday.
Nominations for the top post will be presented to parliament from July 19, after which a vote will be held a day later to elect a new president, according to Abeywardena.
The schedule was agreed during a meeting of Sri Lankan party leaders in Colombo on Monday, with the aim of securing a new all-party unity government as soon as possible in accordance with the country’s constitution.
Following the weekend protests, the IMF said it was closely monitoring developments in the country.
“We hope to resolve the current situation which will allow for the resumption of our dialogue on an IMF-supported program, while we plan to continue technical discussions with our counterparts at the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank of Sri Lanka,” said IMF mission chief Peter Breuer and Masahiro Nozaki in a joint statement on Sunday.
What is life like in Sri Lanka now?
The country suffered its worst financial crisis in seven decades after its foreign reserves fell to record lows and dollars ran out to pay for essential imports, including food, medicine and fuel.
For Sri Lankans, the crisis has turned their daily lives into an endless cycle of waiting in queues for basic goods, many of which are in limited supply.
Despite the government’s earlier efforts to ease the crisis, such as the introduction of a four-day work week, Wickremesinghe declared the country “bankrupt” last Tuesday.
In several major cities, including the capital Colombo, desperate residents continued to queue for food and medicine, with reports of clashes between civilians and the police and military as they waited in line.
In early July, Energy Minister Kanchana Wiesekera said the country had less than a day’s worth of fuel left.
The frequency of trains has been reduced, forcing passengers to cram into compartments and even sit precariously on top of them as they commute to work.
Patients cannot travel to hospitals due to fuel shortages and food prices are rising. Rice, a staple food in the South Asian nation, has disappeared from the shelves of many shops and supermarkets.
Public frustration and anger erupted on March 31 when demonstrators threw bricks and lit fires outside the president’s private residence.
Police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse the protests and then imposed a 36-hour curfew.
President Rajapaksa declared a nationwide state of emergency on April 1, giving authorities the power to detain people without a warrant and blocking social media platforms.
But protests continued the next day in violation of the curfew, prompting police to arrest hundreds of demonstrators.
Protesters have now forced both the country’s president and prime minister to resign.
What is the background to these protests?
The crisis was years in the making, experts said, pointing to a series of government decisions that compounded external shocks.
Over the past decade, Sri Lanka’s government has borrowed huge sums of money from foreign lenders to fund public services, said Murtaza Jafferjee, chairman of the Colombo-based think tank Advocata Institute.
This borrowing frenzy has coincided with a series of hammer blows to the Sri Lankan economy, from natural disasters – such as severe monsoons – to man-made disasters, including a government ban on chemical fertilizers that destroyed farmers’ crops.
Facing a huge deficit, Rajapaksa cut taxes in a doomed attempt to stimulate the economy.
But the move backfired, hitting government revenue instead. This prompted rating agencies to downgrade Sri Lanka to near-default levels, meaning the country lost access to overseas markets.
Sri Lanka then had to give up its foreign exchange reserves to pay off the government debt, shrinking its reserves. This affected the import of fuel and other essential commodities, leading to a surge in prices.
On top of that, the government in March floated the Sri Lankan rupee – meaning its price was set based on supply and demand in foreign exchange markets.
However, the collapse of the rupee against the US dollar has only made things worse for ordinary Sri Lankans.
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