Jauhn Etienne Villaruel

Fire rages through the Singha Durbar, the main administrative building for the Nepal government, in Kathmandu on September 9, 2025, a day after a police crackdown on demonstrations over social media prohibitions and corruption by the government. Nepali youth protesters set fire to parliament on September 9 as the veteran prime minister obeyed furious crowds to quit, a day after one of the deadliest crackdowns in years in which at least 19 people were killed. Photo by Prabin Ranabhat/AFP

Article (news)

Nepal

Agence France-Presse

<div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:960px"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1757469046866cropped-Screen Shot 2025-09-10 at 9.50.13 AM.png" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib"/><span class="fr-inner" style="text-align:left">Fire rages through the Singha Durbar, the main administrative building for the Nepal government, in Kathmandu on September 9, 2025, a day after a police crackdown on demonstrations over social media prohibitions and corruption by the government. Nepali youth protesters set fire to parliament on September 9 as the veteran prime minister obeyed furious crowds to quit, a day after one of the deadliest crackdowns in years in which at least 19 people were killed. Photo by Prabin Ranabhat/AFP</span></span></span></div><p>KATHMANDU, Nepal — Nepali demonstrators set parliament ablaze on Tuesday while the veteran prime minister quit, as a &quot;Gen Z&quot; protest movement sparked by a ban on social media overtook the Himalayan nation.</p><p>At least 19 people were killed during rallies a day earlier, one of the deadliest crackdowns in years which fueled public anger.</p><p>Protesters flooded the streets of the capital Kathmandu on Tuesday, some jubilant and celebrating, others setting fire to government buildings and brandishing automatic rifles.</p><p>The rapid descent into chaos shocked many, and Nepal&#x27;s military warned against &quot;activities that could lead the country into unrest and instability&quot; in the country of 30 million people.</p><p>Protests began on Monday with demands that the government lift a ban on social media and tackle corruption, with police trying to crush the rallies -- including using live ammunition, according to Amnesty International.</p><p>On Tuesday, despite the government rolling back its order and the apps returning online, protests reignited, spreading from the capital to multiple cities nationwide.</p><p>&quot;The Nepal government has fallen, the youth have won the protest,&quot; said key protest figure Sudan Gurung, in a post on newly-restored Instagram. &quot;The future is ours.&quot;</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>PRESIDENT CALLS FOR &#x27;RESTRAINT&#x27;</strong></div><div><strong></strong><strong><br/></strong></div><p>Gangs on Tuesday attacked and set fire to KP Sharma Oli&#x27;s house, the 73-year-old, four-time prime minister and leader of the Communist Party. His whereabouts are not known.</p><p>Plumes of smoke also covered Nepal&#x27;s parliament as demonstrators breached the fence and &quot;torched the main building,&quot; Ekram Giri, spokesman for the Parliament Secretariat, told AFP.</p><p>President Ramchandra Paudel, whose offices were also set on fire by mobs, pleaded for &quot;all parties to exercise restraint, to not allow further damage&quot;.</p><p>The call was echoed by neighboring India, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying that the &quot;stability, peace and prosperity of Nepal are of utmost importance to us&quot;.</p><p>The United Nations rights chief, Volker Turk, said he was &quot;appalled&quot; by the violence and called for talks.</p><p>Those appeals did not seem to be heeded.</p><p>Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said the headquarters of a major publisher -- the Kantipur Media Group -- was burning, and called on &quot;protesters not to target journalists&quot;.</p><p>Protesters, mostly young men, were seen waving the country&#x27;s national flag as they dodged water cannons.</p><p>The International Crisis Group called it a &quot;major inflection point in the country&#x27;s uneasy experience with democratic rule&quot;.</p><p>Kathmandu&#x27;s airport remains open, but some flights were cancelled after smoke from fires affected visibility, airport spokesman Rinji Sherpa said.</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>&#x27;GEN Z MOVEMENT&#x27;</strong></div><div><br/></div><p>Oli in his resignation letter said that he had stepped down to allow &quot;steps towards a political solution&quot;.</p><p>His political career stretched nearly six decades, a period that saw a decade-long civil war, with Nepal abolishing its absolute monarchy in 2008 to become a republic.</p><p>First elected as prime minister in 2015, he was re-elected in 2018, reappointed briefly in 2021, and then took power in 2024 after his Communist Party forged a coalition government with the centre-left Nepali Congress in the often-volatile parliament.</p><p>What happens next is unclear.</p><p>&quot;The protesters, leaders who are trusted by them and the army should come together to pave the way for a caretaker government,&quot; constitutional lawyer Dipendra Jha told AFP.</p><p>Crisis Group analyst Ashish Pradhan echoed that, saying a &quot;transitional arrangement will now need to be charted out swiftly and include figures who still retain credibility with Nepalis, especially the country&#x27;s youth&quot;.</p><p>Balendra Shah, the 35-year-old engineer-turned-rapper who was elected as Kathmandu&#x27;s mayor in 2022, and who is seen as a popular figure in the transition ahead, used Facebook to call on people to &quot;be restrained&quot;.</p><p>&quot;We had made it clear: this is purely a Gen Z movement,&quot; Shah wrote after Oli&#x27;s resignation, referring to young people aged largely in their 20s.</p><p>&quot;Your generation must take the lead in running the country. Be ready!&quot;</p><p>People aged 15-40 make up nearly 43 percent of the population, according to government statistics -- while unemployment hovers around 10 percent and GDP per capita is just $1,447, according to the World Bank.</p><p>Several social media sites -- including Facebook, YouTube and X -- were blocked on Friday, after the government cut access to 26 unregistered platforms.</p><p>Since then, videos contrasting the struggles of ordinary Nepalis with the children of politicians flaunting luxury goods and expensive vacations have gone viral on TikTok, which was not blocked.</p><p>&quot;This frustration has been building for over two decades, fueled by corruption,&quot; said a 26-year-old protester, who did not want to be named.</p><p>&quot;What you see now is just a spark ignited by social media.&quot;</p><div><strong>— By Paavan Mathema, Agence France-Presse</strong></div><div><br/></div><div><strong>RELATED VIDEOS</strong></div><div><br/></div><div><strong><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZTLptv0VctU?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span></strong><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Edfly4bt7NA?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><br/></div>

<p>Videos contrasting the struggles of ordinary Nepalis with the children of politicians flaunting luxury goods and expensive vacations have gone viral on TikTok.</p>

Videos contrasting the struggles of ordinary Nepalis with the children of politicians flaunting luxury goods and expensive vacations have gone viral on TikTok.

Gen Z movement: Nepal protesters set parliament ablaze as PM quits

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Gen Z movement: Nepal protesters set parliament ablaze as PM quits

Agence France-Presse

Published Sep 10, 2025 10:00 AM PHT

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Nepal

protests

gen z

politics

Kathmandu

Himalayan

youth

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