Sri Lanka: Protesters clean Presidential Palace in Colombo

After intruding and unwinding Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's house, protesting youths were seen taking out trash from the Presidential Palace on July 11. “We feel responsible to clean because it's a public area. We believe our generation should change the system. We've given a message to President Rajapaksa and should be calm now,” said one protester. Sri Lanka continues to suffer from its worst economic crisis since gaining independence in 1948, which comes on the heels of successive waves of COVID-19, threatening to undo years of development progress and severely undermining the country's ability to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).