On a patch of grass near Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's office in the commercial capital Colombo, around two dozen tents have been erected in a small but growing camp that is becoming the focal point of national protests.
Thousands of people have taken to the streets nearby and across the country in recent days to call for Rajapaksa to step down, venting their anger at soaring inflation and lengthy power cuts caused by the spiralling economic crisis.
At the edge of a lawn, behind some tents, around 30 Muslim men sat in two lines to break their Ramadan fast. Mahinda Rajapaksa, the president's elder brother, serves as prime minister and their younger brother, Basil, was finance minister until recently. Walking around barefoot early on Tuesday, after another night of heavy rain, Mary Suwen was rearranging tents that her husband had brought in from his adventure tourism business."We need to pressure them," she said, talking of the Rajapaksas. "They need to be accountable to the people."
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