People taking back power. At the Presidential Secretariat in Colombo, Sri Lanka. July 9, 2022. Image by Amalini. Used with permission. On July 9, Sri Lankans were pushed to their breaking point by the rising prices and acute shortage of fuel, food and medicines among other things. Thousands of people from all over the country marched toward the president's official residence in the capital Colombo demanding the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Incredible scenes of people marching toward the official residence of the president and storming the house flooded social media, evoking memories of the US Capitol siege on January 6, 2021. The president fled to an undisclosed location and news came out that he will resign in the coming days. Amidst public protests, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa resigned on May 9, 2022. However, his brother, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa stayed in power despite ongoing protests. On July 5, 2022, Sri Lankan incumbent Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe declared that the country is “bankrupt” and the nation is facing challenges to negotiate with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to revive the country's economy. Sri Lanka is facing its worst-ever economic crisis as foreign currency shortages prohibited it from importing essential items such as fuel, food and medicine. The crisis is precipitated by a series of major economic blunders, which led the country to default on its foreign debt repayment last May. On July 4, 2022, the country only had one day’s worth of fuel in its reserves which immediately forced all public transport to halt. Citizens faced long queues at the fuel stations to refill their cooking gas or fuel for transport. While the army has been guarding the country's fuel stations since last March, there have been reports of sporadic clashes outside fuel stations and troops had to open fire on June 19 to stop riots over fuel. Activist and blogger Amalini shared a Twitter thread explaining how the fuel crisis has impacted lives in the island nation. Thread of scenes and stories of #EconomicCrisisLK, from queues and homes around the island. Photos where individuals are close and identifiable were taken with consent. #lka #srilanka pic.twitter.com/8cuS1UhwOt — Amalini (@Amaliniii) June 13, 2022 Twitter user Sri Lanka Tweet reports that 14 people have died so far while waiting in long queues for fuel. So far 14 people have died while waiting in long queues. 60-year old person reported dead after hospitalization following a sudden illness while waiting in line at a fuel station in Payagala.https://t.co/dCbUOnV394 #LKA #SriLanka #FuelCrisisLK #SriLankaCrisis — Sri Lanka Tweet 🇱🇰 💉 (@SriLankaTweet) July 7, 2022 However, the nation will have to wait until July 22 for the next shipment of fuel. As of June 2022, food inflation in Sri Lanka rose to an all-time high of 80.1 percent. As per a UNICEF survey, over 70 percent of Sri Lankan households had to curtail food consumption. Many businesses and schools have been closed. With rising unemployment, many urban dwellers returned to their villages to survive by growing their own food. Peace-building activist Nabeela shared a Twitter thread titled “How are you surviving? #lka” which depicts how economically marginalized people are reeling under this economic crisis. 🧵 How are you surviving? #lka My husband cannot speak and without batteries on this hearing aid, he cannot hear. We depend on his job and my oldest son (18 yrs) who is not in school anymore, for our family of 9. pic.twitter.com/vvz21WcnpC — Nabeela (@nabeelaxiqbal) July 1, 2022 The economic crisis, severe inflation, daily blackouts, shortage of fuel and other essential items have pushed the Sri Lankan people to engage in peaceful and spontaneous protests since mid-March this year. The Occupy Galle Face sit-in protests at Galle Face Green, a large park in Colombo's financial district, also known as “Gota Gogama,” started on April 9, 2022. These protests, led by the social media savvy youth, including students, teachers, doctors and other professionals, are effectively leaderless. They set up dozens of tents to occupy the greenspace and sympathetic citizens have supported them by donating water, food and medicines. Participants are wary of politicians, both from the ruling party and the opposition. After 30 days of peaceful protests, on May 9, 2022, supporters of the Rajapaksa regime attacked the protesters outside of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa's residence in Colombo and destroyed the tents at the Gota Gogama. After that, protests intensified and finally, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa resigned although his brother Gotabaya Rajapaksa nominally remained president.