Nepalese Prime Minister Resigns Following Violent Protests 

Nepal’s prime minister KP Sharma Oli resigned Tuesday, a day after at least 19 people died and hundreds more were wounded in a violent crackdown on protests against a short-lived social media ban and government graft, the Washington Post reported. 

Young Nepalese demonstrators took to the streets Tuesday night in growing and increasingly violent protests, defying an indefinite curfew imposed following protests over the past week, triggered by a week-old ban on social media apps and widespread anger over government corruption.  

Due to the young age of many of the protesters, the demonstrations have been dubbed the “Gen Z protests.”  

Early on Tuesday, Nepal’s government lifted the ban and restored social media access, but the decision, alongside the leader’s resignation, arrived too late to quell the unrest, observers said. Instead, tens of thousands of protesters stayed on the streets late into the day, blocking roads, storming and torching parliament and other government buildings, and attacking political leaders, the Associated Press wrote. 

Oli’s resignation and the reversal of the ban on 26 social media platforms including WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, Signal, Reddit, YouTube, and X imposed because platforms failed to officially register their companies in the country amid a crackdown on social media, followed violent protest on Monday in which police in the capital of Kathmandu responded with live rounds as well as water cannons, rubber bullets, and tear gas. 

Oli said he was resigning to allow for a constitutional resolution of the crisis. He will remain as head of a caretaker government until a new one is sworn in by a deeply divided parliament, the Hindustan Times added. 

Analysts said Nepal’s latest outbreak of protests was no surprise as voter discontent has been rising for months amid recurring corruption allegations involving the country’s leadership. In March, large crowds in the capital took part in pro-monarchy demonstrations, calling for the return of former King Gyanendra. The monarchy was abolished in 2008.