Nepal
A shockwave in Nepal as young protesters succeeded in forcing the resignation of Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli. Organizers branded the demonstrations the ‘Gen Z’ protests, saying the country’s youth were fed up with corruption, nepotism, unemployment and the luxurious lives of a small elite. As mentioned in yesterday’s Proximities, the catalyst for protests on Monday, in which 19 demonstrators were killed by security forces, was a social media ban but anger with the government on deeper problems had festered for years in the poverty-stricken nation. At the time of writing, it appears the parliament building has been set on fire. Perhaps ominously, the army said it was “committed to taking control of the situation,” without elaborating on what that meant.
More from Reuters here.
Ethiopia
A huge day in Ethiopia with the inauguration of its long-awaited Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), the largest hydroelectric dam on the African continent. The project has been hugely popular in Ethiopia, which has always felt shortchanged by its share of Nile waters. But the Blue Nile, which the dam now straddles, is the upstream source of most of the water that flows from the Nile into Egypt. Cairo has called the dam “an existential threat” and, for more than a decade, there has been talk of war. At the inauguration, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed called GERD "the greatest achievement in the history of the Black race," adding that he intended no harm “to our brothers,” likely a signal to Egypt and to Sudan, which is also downstream of the mammoth structure.
More from BBC here.
Egypt
Some welcome news out of Egypt. President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has ordered authorities to look into the possibility of pardoning the high-profile British-Egyptian pro-democracy activist Alaa Abdel Fattah. Abdel Fattah became hugely well-known as a firebrand voice during the “Arab Spring” protests that led to the toppling of the autocratic Hosni Muburak in 2011. He later also became a critic of Sisi. The 43-year-old has spent most of the last decade behind bars on trumped-up charges. He comes from a prominent family of activists and academics, and both he and his mother have staged hunger strikes during his detention.
More from The New Arab here.