Former Sri Lankan president Gotabaya Rajapaksa will return to the country from Thailand in the early hours of Saturday, official sources confirmed on Friday, nearly two months after he fled the country following an uprising against his government over the island nation's worst-ever economic crisis.

Rajapaksa, 73, fled the country on July 13 after months-long mass public demonstrations demanding his immediate resignation on July 9 gained momentum after protesters stormed the President's House in Colombo and several other state buildings in the capital.