'I've no home now', Ranil Wickremesinghe tells protesters asking him to 'go home'

To protesters demanding that he 'go home', Sri Lanka's new president Ranil Wickremesinghe has a ready answer: he has no home now.

During his speech in Kandy, Wickremesinghe said it was pointless of protesters to ask him to 'go home' as his home was burned down by them. On July 9, Sri Lankan protesters broke into the private residence of Wickremesinghe - who was then the prime minister - and set it on fire.

To protestors in Sri Lanka who are threatening to launch more protests for his ouster, the president said: "I am appealing to you not to do that as I have no home to go to."


"No point telling a man who has no home, to go home," he said, adding that after his house was rebuilt the protesters can make that demand.

The Sri Lankan president said that the protesters must either rebuild the country or rebuild his house.

Wickremesinghe blamed protests for delaying a possible deal with the IMF. "The negotiations stalled due to instability in the island nation over the past few weeks as agitators stormed the nation amid extreme fuel and food shortages," he said.

The president said other countries are not willing to offer financial assistance to the island nation until a deal is reached with the IMF. Sri Lanka is suffering its worst economic crisis since its independence in 1948.