What started with a peaceful protest has up-ended Nepal in a matter of days.
Some students rallied in school uniform in what have been called the gen Z protests, calling for the government to overturn a ban on platforms like Facebook, X and YouTube from operating in the country.
Authorities responded violently, opening fire on the crowds, leaving at least 19 people dead.
The anger that saw thousands rally in defiance of a curfew a day later ran far deeper than concerns about access to Facebook and WhatsApp.
"Everybody is flying out of the country for jobs. People are facing poverty here. The roads are terrible," 22-year-old Darshana Padal told the ABC.
"Development has not been happening [because] these politicians are keeping all the money in their pockets. This is affecting our future."
The government backtracked on its social media ban on Tuesday but it was not enough to quell the riots.
Police fired tear gas, water cannons, rubber bullets and live rounds as protesters broke through barricades at parliament. Hundreds were injured.
With the country's capital, Kathmandu, consumed by riots on Tuesday, Nepalese Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli resigned.
As the news spread, convoys of motorbikes roared through the capital, with riders blaring their horns and waving flags.
People broke into parliament, scrawling graffiti and chanting "KP chor. Desh chhorh" — "Oli is a thief. Leave the country."
His home was set ablaze, with local media showing protesters smashing windows, overturning furniture and torching the compound as outnumbered police stood by.
And former prime minister Jhalanath Khanal's wife, Rabi Laxmi Chitrakar, died after sustaining critical injuries when their home was set on fire amid the unrest.
Computer scientist and civil society activist Dovan Rai told the ABC she welcomed the prime minister's resignation, describing it as "a little bit of relief" in a chaotic time.
But it was not enough for others after years of simmering frustration over corruption, nepotism and broken promises in Nepal's democratic system.
"We don't want his resignation. We want his head," one protester told the ABC.
"A leader who can order to kill a student is a crime minister; not the prime minister," another protester, Mandeep, said.
"He needs to be arrested. We want blood for blood."
Worries of anarchy and a democracy betrayed
For many Nepalese, the most pressing concern is what happens next.
The fall of the coalition government has left a vacuum, and the streets remain restless.
"We don't know how it is going to unfold, anarchy or whether, you know, we might face some constitutional crisis and we have a lot of right-wing extremist groups as well here," Ms Rai said.
"There's also the fear of the army … it's also very alarming."
She pointed to problems in Nepal's parliament, which has been paralysed by factionalism and coalitions that have repeatedly collapsed in recent years, as there is no single party strong enough to govern alone.
But at the heart of the anger is the sense that Nepal's democracy has been betrayed.
"Nepal had multiple movements for democracy, but it has still been kind of hosted by the very autocratic, lazy mentality," she explained.
"So even though it is like a democracy on paper, people have not been able to realise it."
Since the abolition of the monarchy in 2008, Nepal has struggled to build stable democratic institutions.
Governments change frequently — and political parties are often dominated by a handful of aging leaders.
Ms Rai described a system captured by dynasties and loyalists.
"These old leaders of these old political parties, they have this kind of very nepotistic power structure, their children, or henchmen," she said.
"There's a lot of resentment for that nepotistic, feudal, loyalist political culture."
A lack of broad social security has also attracted scrutiny from international groups, including Human Rights Watch and the International Labour Organization (ILO) — an agency of the United Nations.
The ILO warned in 2023 that only about a third of the population had access to any social protection provisions.
It said 20.1 million Nepalese remained without any form of social welfare support and there were substantial gaps in covering children and health care.
The rise of the 'nepo kids'
The term "nepo kids", borrowed from global debates about nepotism in entertainment and politics, has become a rallying cry for Nepal's young protesters.
"In Nepal, you see the kids of the big political parties who are having these lavish weddings … but the young people, they see their future as uncertain because our government has not been able to provide them basic economic opportunity," she said.
Nepal's youth face chronic unemployment and widespread underemployment.
Some 3.5 million Nepalese are working abroad, accounting for nearly 15 per cent of the country's total population. Many have taken construction jobs in the Middle East, South Korea and Malaysia and send money home to support family.
Remittances sent home in 2024 accounted for about a third of the country's GDP.
For those who remain, opportunities are limited, and anger has grown as images circulate of political families displaying extraordinary wealth.
If corruption and nepotism were long-standing grievances, it was the government's sudden social media ban that brought people onto the streets.
Critics said it revealed how out of touch the government was with a generation that relied on digital platforms not only for communication but for jobs, remittances and education.
"The current government … was very idiotic, and just dropped this social media ban without any conversation with the people," Ms Rai said.
However, another element feeding the unrest is misinformation.
The government argued that its social media reforms were needed because platforms were being used to fan disinformation and commit fraud.
Locals said that a highly fragmented political scene, combined with many Nepalese living abroad, resulted in false narratives spreading quickly through digital channels.
Ms Rai said misinformation was "really rampant" and accused political parties themselves of using social media platforms to gain attention in a "very flammable, very viral" way.
She was also concerned about the role of monarchist and Hindu nationalist groups trying to capitalise amid the unrest.
"They want to cause this demise of the democratic platform itself," she said.
For many Nepalese, the unrest represents not just anger at one government, but frustration with a political system that has repeatedly failed to deliver.
On the walls of the Nepalese parliament on Tuesday, protesters scrawled the words "we won", but it remains to be seen what this so-called victory will mean for the people of Nepal.
Nepal's president is scrambling to appoint a successor and it is unclear who is in charge.
A power vacuum has opened at the very top, and the army chief has appealed to citizens to maintain peace and security.
Additional reporting by Patrick Martin
