Sushila Karki, 73, a former chief justice, has been tasked with restoring order and addressing demands for clean governance ahead of elections scheduled in six months.
The protests, triggered by a social media ban and fueled by long-standing economic frustrations, erupted Monday and escalated rapidly, with parliament and key government buildings set ablaze.”We have to work according to the thinking of the Gen Z generation,” Karki said in her first public comments since taking office Friday.
A fifth of Nepal’s 15-24-year-olds are unemployed, according to the World Bank, in a nation of 30 million with GDP per capita of just $1,447. “What this group is demanding is the end of corruption, good governance and economic equality,” she added.
Karki observed a minute’s silence Sunday for those killed in the unrest before convening meetings in Singha Durbar, the main government complex where several buildings were torched last week.At least 72 people were killed and 191 injured during two days of violence, Chief Secretary Eaknarayan Aryal said, revising an earlier toll of 51. It was the deadliest unrest since the end of Nepal’s decade-long civil war and the 2008 abolition of the monarchy.Her appointment followed negotiations led by army chief General Ashok Raj Sigdel and President Ram Chandra Paudel, who consulted with representatives of the youth protest movement. Thousands of activists had used Discord to nominate Karki as their preferred leader.
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