Sri Lanka's Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who oversaw a ruthless crushing of Tamil Tiger guerrillas to end a long-running civil war and went on to become president, had been due to step down on Wednesday to appease a population angry over several tumultuous months of economic and political crisis.
He chose to do so by fleeing the country.
An immigration official said Rajapaksa, his wife and two bodyguards left the country by a Sri Lankan air force plane in the early hours of Wednesday. A government source said he had gone to Male, the capital of the Maldives.