Following last week's fatal violence, Sri Lanka is expected to create a new cabinet on Monday (May 16), with bitter political enemies uniting to address a deepening economic crisis, according to party leaders. Meanwhile, protesters remained camped outside President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's mansion, demanding that he resign, while military patrolled the streets and ordinary Sri Lankans waited for scant supplies.

        Ranil Wickremesinghe, who was re-elected prime minister for the sixth time on Thursday, has struggled to establish a "unity government" after the major opposition demanded that Rajapaksa follow his brother Mahinda, who resigned last week. Two senior members of the major opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) party have agreed to break ranks and join the "economic war cabinet," according to party insiders.

        Sajith Premadasa, the head of the opposition, stated his party will not oppose any reasonable "solutions to the economic difficulties" in parliament. The Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) has announced that it will provide conditional support to Wickremesinghe, reversing an earlier decision not to. In a letter to the prime minister, SLFP leader Maithripala Sirisena said, "We would support any proper actions implemented by the new administration to handle our dire economic problem."

        Official sources said the complete cabinet will be sworn in ahead of Tuesday's parliamentary session, which would be the first since Wickremesinghe's appointment at the age of 73. On Saturday, four ministers from Rajapaksa's Sri Lanka Podu Jana Peramuna (SLPP) party were sworn in.

        However, there is now no finance minister, and it is widely believed that the prime minister would continue to oversee ongoing discussions with the IMF for an emergency bailout. Wickremesinghe has also requested foreign assistance.

        According to his office, he met with World Bank and Asian Development Bank executives in Colombo on Sunday to discuss concerns like as medication, food, gasoline, and fertilizer supplies. "While describing the negotiations as encouraging, the prime minister emphasized that the government is facing an urgent issue in finding funding to pay for the fuel needed this week," according to the statement.

        "Due to bank dollar shortages, the administration is currently looking into other ways for obtaining the required funds." Food, gasoline, and medical shortages, as well as record inflation and protracted outages, have wreaked havoc on the country's 22 million residents.

        Protesters across the Buddhist-majority country have been calling for President Rajapaksa's resignation for weeks, citing Sri Lanka's worst economic crisis since independence in 1948. Wickremesinghe's appointment has so far failed to calm popular outrage over the government's role in pushing Sri Lanka to the verge of economic disaster.

        Thousands of people have been protesting outside the president's sea-front office since April 9, demanding his resignation. Long lines formed outside the few remaining gas stations on Monday, a Buddhist festival, as drivers waited for rationed gasoline. After at least nine people were murdered in rioting last week, heavily armed troops were still patrolling the streets and a state of emergency was still in force.