Nepal’s new chief vowed on Sunday (September 14, 2025) to follow protesters’ demands to “end corruption” as she started work as interim Prime Minister, after “Gen Z” youth demonstrations ousted her predecessor.
Sushila Karki, the 73-year-old former Chief Justice, has been tasked with restoring order and addressing protesters’ demands for a corruption-free future forward of elections in six months.
Protests started on Monday (September 8, 2025) sparked by a ban on social media and shortly escalated, with Parliament and key authorities buildings set ablaze, as they fed into long-standing financial woes in Nepal.
“We have to work according to the thinking of the Gen Z generation,” mentioned Ms. Karki, in her first public feedback since taking workplace on Friday.
A fifth of individuals in Nepal aged 15-24 are unemployed, in accordance to the World Bank, with GDP per capita standing at simply $1,447.
“What this group is demanding is end of corruption, good governance and economic equality,” she added. “You and I have to be determined to fulfil that.”
‘From the streets’
Ms. Karki held a minute’s silence on Sunday (September 14, 2025) for these killed within the unrest, earlier than conferences started in the important thing authorities advanced of Singha Durbar — the place a number of buildings had been set on hearth throughout mass protests on Tuesday.
At least 72 individuals had been killed in two days of protests, and 191 injured, the federal government’s Chief Secretary Eaknarayan Aryal mentioned on Sunday (September 14, 2025), rising an earlier toll of 51.
It was the worst unrest because the finish of a decade-long civil struggle and the abolition of the monarchy in 2008.
The appointment of Ms. Karki, identified for her independence, got here after intense negotiations by Army chief General Ashok Raj Sigdel and President Ram Chandra Paudel, together with with representatives of “Gen Z”, the unfastened umbrella title of the youth protest motion.
Thousands of younger activists had used the Discord app to title Ms. Karki as their alternative of chief.
“The situation that I have come in, I have not wished to come here. My name was brought from the streets,” Ms. Karki mentioned.
The Parliament has been dissolved and elections set for March 5, 2026.
“We will not stay here more than six months in any situation, we will complete our responsibilities and pledge to hand over to the next Parliament and Ministers,” she added, in a speech to the nation.
‘Challenging times’
Workers put up a brand new signboard for the Prime Minister’s workplace in a constructing inside the advanced however which was not torched.
Mr. Paudel, who swore Ms. Karki into workplace, mentioned late on Saturday (September 13, 2025) that “a peaceful solution has been found through a difficult process”.
Mr. Paudel known as it a “very difficult, complicated, and grave situation”.
“I sincerely appeal to everyone to make the most of this opportunity… in making the election on March 5 a success,” he mentioned.
Soldiers have scaled again their presence on the streets, the place they’d been deployed in massive numbers after the protests.
But greater than 12,500 prisoners who escaped from jails in the course of the chaos are on the run, and current a frightening safety headache.
Regional leaders have congratulated Ms. Karki, together with Nepal’s two big neighbours, India and China.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi mentioned New Delhi supported “peace, progress and prosperity” in Nepal, whereas Beijing’s Foreign Ministry mentioned it needed to “push China-Nepal relations steadily forward”.