Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa reacts during his swearing in ceremony as the new Prime Minister, at Kelaniya Buddhist temple in Colombo, Sri Lanka, August 9, 2020. REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte© Reuters Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa reacts during his swearing in ceremony as the new Prime Minister, at Kelaniya Buddhist temple in Colombo, Sri Lanka, August 9, 2020. REUTERS/Dinuka LiyanawatteHis brother, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, is refusing to stand down despite calls from demonstrators.

Protests escalated over the past week, with the government imposing a state of emergency and curfew, giving sweeping powers to security forces.

Pro-government groups have attacked protesters leading to dozens being admitted to hospital.

Sri Lankans have faced months of power outages and acute food, fuel and medicine shortages as the country cannot import supplies because of its huge foreign debts.

Mr Rajapaksa has held two prime ministerial terms, the most recent since 2019.

He was also president of Sri Lanka from 2005 to 2015 when he ended the country’s 26-year civil war between the Sinhalese government and the separatist group, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

Both sides have been accused of war crimes and Mr Rajapaksa faced criticism for how he won the conflict, with 40,000 Tamil civilians alleged to have been killed by government forces in the final weeks of fighting.

Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister resigns after weeks of major protests (msn.com)