Nepal’s New Interim PM Pledges to Tackle Corruption After Youth-Led Uprising
KATHMANDU — Nepal’s new interim prime minister, Sushila Karki, vowed Sunday to honor the demands of a youth-led protest movement that toppled her predecessor, promising to confront corruption and restore stability ahead of elections scheduled in six months.
Karki, 73, a former chief justice known for her independence, was sworn in after days of violent unrest that left 72 people dead and nearly 200 injured. The protests, sparked on September 7 by a government ban on social media, quickly escalated into the country’s worst turmoil since the abolition of the monarchy in 2008. Parliament was set ablaze, government buildings torched, and soldiers flooded the streets.
“We have to work according to the thinking of the Gen Z generation,” Karki declared in her first remarks since taking office September 12. “What this group is demanding is the end of corruption, good governance, and economic equality. You and I must be determined to fulfill that.”
A fifth of Nepalese aged 15 to 24 are unemployed, according to the World Bank, feeding frustration among a generation that organized largely through the messaging app Discord. Thousands of young activists rallied around Karki as their preferred candidate, a choice later brokered by President Ram Chandra Paudel and army chief General Ashok Raj Sigdel.
“The situation I have come into is not one I sought. My name was brought from the streets,” Karki said in a televised address. She pledged to step down after elections set for March 5, 2026.
Though troops have pulled back, security concerns remain acute. More than 12,500 inmates escaped during the chaos and remain at large. For now, Nepal balances between the ashes of unrest and the fragile hope of a political reset.
