President Gotabaya Rajapaksa agreed to step down, an ally said.
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Local media reported that Mr. Rajapaksa ordered cooking fuel to be distributed, but the statement could not be immediately verified.
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The months of discontent in Sri Lanka came to a head on Saturday, with the leader of Parliament saying that the president had agreed to resign.
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But the chaos in the country — on the streets and in politics — is far from over.
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It’s unclear what the next government will look like and what it can do immediately to address shortages of food, medicine, fuel and other essentials.
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The news of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s resignation came from Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena, the parliamentary speaker.
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The president, he said, will resign on Wednesday “to ensure a peaceful transition of power.”
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But Mr. Rajapaksa hasn’t been seen or heard from publicly since protesters stormed his official residence Saturday in Colombo, the capital.
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They are accusing him of mismanaging the country’s finances and leading it to economic ruin.
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They notched a win in May when Mr. Rajapaksa was forced to remove his elder brother, Mahinda, himself a former president, from the post of prime minister.