OWSA Contributor

The 24-month cohort follow-up, conducted between August 2022 and December 2024, paints a troubling picture of early marriage, adolescent pregnancy, violence, and severe gaps in reproductive health services for some of the country’s most marginalised women.

In 2008, Nepal recorded 97 deaths; since then, annual fatalities have ranged between 6 and 32. But experts caution that the real numbers, especially in remote areas with limited surveillance, are likely higher.

the violence was triggered after a 12-year-old Marma girl was allegedly raped by three Bengali youths on September 23 while returning home from tuition in the Singinala area.

The report, filed under Section 7044 of the foreign operations appropriations legislation, outlines multiple fronts on which Washington plans to back human rights, education, and free expression – particularly for Afghan women and girls – even as the Taliban remain in control of most of the country.

This was the first major disaster to strike since the Trump administration suspended US foreign aid to Afghanistan in January. While Washington released statements of sympathy, it has made no formal pledge of direct financial assistance to quake relief.

The joint study, led by Jahangirnagar University’s departments of Zoology and Environmental Science, documents the presence of microplastics not only in river water and sediments but also inside insect bodies.

One journalist interviewed by Amnesty said he believed his communications were under surveillance at all times.

The report’s broader poverty measure underscores how deeply structural pressures are squeezing households. The poverty rate – nearly 28 per cent – has jumped significantly in just three years.