2020-11-30
Since the end of 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused public health crises around the world. It has severely disrupted the economic and social dimensions of daily life. Governments around the world have restricted public activities, mobility, and banned public gatherings to control the spread of COVID-19. The Government of Nepal, following similar containment strategies, imposed a nationwide lockdown on March 24, 2020. The pandemic has overburdened health systems and necessitated other public health responses promptly and effectively from the government. The crisis and the enforced restrictions have had a significant impact on the livelihood of people across the country. It has also limited the freedom of assembly, association and expression, and could potentially trigger incidents of conflicts in Nepal. Amidst this emergent scenario, this report analyzes incidents of conflict-related to the COVID-19 pandemic in Nepal. These incidents and events were recorded by COCAP’s Nepal Peace Monitoring Project (PMP). PMP has been recording various incidents related to COVID-19 since February 2020. These incidents and events were either directly triggered by the government’s response to the pandemic or due to the growing economic fallout caused by the restrictions imposed on social and economic activities. This report analyzes incidents recorded during the pandemic period from the month of February to September 2020. During this eight-month period, a total of 510 incidents related to COVID-19 were recorded across Nepal. Of these incidents, more than two-third were non-violent (72.4%) and the rest (27.6%) were violent.