A heavily guarded convoy of six buses snaked its way out of Nepal's capital yesterday, the first vehicles to defy Maoist rebels who blockaded Kathmandu this week with threats alone and without setting up a single roadblock.
But the risk of attacks by the insurgents kept other vehicles off the roads, and police said no cars or delivery trucks have entered the capital since Wednesday's start of the blockade, called by the rebels to demand that the government release jailed comrades.
The blockade has left the capital with only a few days' worth of fresh produce and cooking fuel, officials have said.
However, the city has enough food staples such as rice and flour to last about a month, commerce ministry official Dinesh Pyakurel said.
Even with dozens of soldiers in trucks guarding the convoy of six buses, many would-be travelers were too scared to use them and only about 50 passengers headed off for various destinations in Nepal's southwest.
In the past, rebels have burned dozens of vehicles and planted mines to reinforce blockades, and early this week they threw a bomb at a luxury hotel for disregarding an order to shut down. "We have doubled the number of patrols and mobilized troops all over the highway. Security forces are on high alert all across the nation," Home Ministry official Anantraj Pandey said.
Army officials said they have offered to escort supply trucks to bring food into the city, but truck owners have refused to work.
People in Kathmandu were mostly calm and store owners reported no panic buying. Many civilians said they expected the rebels to drop the blockade after a few days.
The rebels -- inspired by Chinese leader Mao Zedong (毛澤東) -- have been fighting since 1996 to replace Nepal's monarchy with a communist state. More than 9,500 people have died in the war, most of them in rural areas far from the capital.
The guerrillas have struck Kathmandu before, planting bombs under buses and motorcycles to enforce strikes or inspiring students to shut down schools. But this week's blockade was unusual because it was succeeding simply on fear.
There were no reports of rebels setting up barricades on any roads, and police officers said they had seen no guerrillas. But the insurgents were believed to be watching the roads, which were empty except for military and police vehicles.
Other than planes, which are too expensive for most in this impoverished nation, roads are the only way to travel in the Kathmandu Valley, and its 1.5 million people depend on trucks to bring fuel, food and other goods.
The rebels sent a notice to newspapers last week saying that beginning Wednesday they would impose the blockade for an indefinite period to pressure the government to free jailed guerrillas and provide information on others who are missing. They threatened to attack any vehicles traveling on the highways.
Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba's government has made no public comment on the demands.
Authorities refuse to say how many rebels are being detained. Nepalese law allows soldiers to detain people suspected of being rebels for 90 days without charge.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
RSS