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Nepal reported 19 new Covid-19 cases on Wednesday.

According to the Ministry of Health and Population, 3, 349 swab samples were tested in the RT-PCR method, of which 16 returned positive. Likewise, 1, 336 people underwent antigen tests, of which four were tested positive.

The Ministry said that no one died of virus in the last 24 hours. The Ministry said that 49 infected people recovered from the disease.

As of today, there are 520 active cases in the country.

At least 154 people were killed in Sunday's attack by gunmen on villages in Nigeria's northern Plateau state, more than three times the initial count, two community leaders said, Reuters reported.

Armed gangs in northwestern Nigeria have terrorised villagers for years through kidnappings for ransom, but they have become more brutal, killing and pillaging communities where state security agents are rarely seen.

Ya'u Abubakar, a senior councillor of Garga rural district in the Kanem local government area of Plateau told Reuters that the gunmen arrived on motorbikes and started shooting sporadically.

Houses and shops were burnt to the ground and some people who tried to hide in nearby bushes were pursued and shot and their bodies were discovered on Tuesday, he said.

Abubakar said there were mass burials as shocked communities tried to come to grips with the violent attack, according to Reuters.

"All in all we have in our records (the number) of those killed at 154, including those found in bushes," Abubakar said by phone.

Such attacks are not common in Plateau. 

But the state shares a border with Kaduna state, where suspected bandits - a loose term for gangs of outlaws carrying out robberies and kidnappings - blew up train tracks, killed eight people and kidnapped dozens last month.

Alhaji Wada, a Garga community leader said soldiers had been deployed to secure the area and were pursuing the gunmen.

"They should not be spared or forgiven," President Muhammadu Buhari said in a statement late on Tuesday, Reuters reported.

Telephone services are patchy in Nigeria's rural hinterlands, making it difficult for communities to call in help from security forces, whose resources are stretched due to an Islamist insurgency in the northeast of the country.

CPN-UML and Rastriya Prajatantra Party-Nepal have agreed to forge an alliance in the local level elections.

UML Local Development Department Chief Devendra Dahal and RPP-N's Local Body Mobilization Department Chief Sushil Kumar Shrestha signed a five-point agreement to forge the electoral alliance.

Following the agreement, RPP-N candidates will contest the elections under the electoral symbol of UML.

The two parties have agreed to implement the agreement after the permission of the central level.

Meanwhile, UML and Pariwar Dal have also agreed to forge an electoral alliance.

Nepal has restricted imports of non-essential goods - including cars, cosmetics and gold - after its foreign currency reserves dropped, BBC reported.

It comes as a fall in tourism spending and money sent home by Nepalis working abroad helped drive up government debt. 

Meanwhile, the governor of the country's central bank was removed from his role last week.

Nepal's finance minister said he was "surprised" the issue was being compared with the crisis in Sri Lanka.

According to the country's central bank, Nepal Rastra Bank, foreign currency reserves fell by more than 16% to 1.17tn Nepali rupees ($9.59bn; £7.36bn) in the seven months to the middle of February.

Over the same period, the amount of money sent to Nepal by people working abroad fell by almost 5%, according to BBC.

Narayan Prasad Pokharel, deputy spokesperson at the central bank, told the Reuters news agency that the institution believed the country's foreign currency reserves were "under pressure". 

"Something must be done to restrict the import of non-essential goods, without affecting the supply of essential goods," Mr Pokharel said. 

He added that importers were allowed to bring in 50 "luxurious goods" if they paid for them in full.

"This is not banning the imports but discouraging them," Mr Pokharel said.

Last week, Nepal's government removed central bank governor Maha Prasad Adhikari from his role, without giving a reason for the decision.

Government debt in Nepal has risen to more than 43% of its gross domestic product, as officials increased spending to help cushion the economic impact of pandemic, Nepal's finance ministry said on Monday.

The ministry also said indicators of the country's economic health were "normal". 

"However, due to some pressures in the external sector, some steps have already been taken to manage imports and increase foreign exchange reserve," it said in a statement. 

Earlier in the day, finance minister Janardan Sharma said Nepal's debt was lower than other countries in the region and elsewhere, BBC reported.

Mr Sharma told reporters: "I am surprised why people are comparing with Sri Lanka". The island nation is facing its most serious economic crisis since independence from the UK in 1948.

Alex Holmes, an emerging markets economist at research firm Capital Economics also told the BBC that the situation in Nepal appears "much better than in Sri Lanka".

Nepal's foreign currency reserves are double what is considered "a comfortable minimum" and government debt "is not particularly high", Mr Holmes said.

"Of course, things will eventually regress if the current account deficit does not narrow," he added. "But crisis does not appear imminent".

Last week, Sri Lanka named a new central bank chief and almost doubled its key interest rate to help tackle soaring prices and shortages of essential goods.

In recent weeks, demonstrators have taken to the streets of the capital Colombo as homes and businesses were hit with long power cuts.

Sri Lankans are faced with shortages and rising inflation after the country steeply devalued its currency last month ahead of talks with the International Monetary Fund over a bailout, according to BBC.

Soaring global prices of commodities such as crude and edible oil are adding to the pressure on Nepal's foreign currency reserves amid a decline in remittances and tourist earnings, Reuters reported.

Nepal has imposed restrictions on imports of cars, gold, cosmetics and other non-essential items to protect its dwindling reserves. Critics say it could face an external payments crisis, though the government rejects this.

Nepal's import bill rose 38.6% to 1.31 trillion Nepali rupees ($10.8 billion) in first eight months of the financial year that started in mid-July, forcing the government to dip into foreign currency reserves amid sluggish export earnings.

Economists at the Asia Development Bank have warned higher oil and other commodity prices could push up domestic inflation, and add to pressure on external trade. However, the country doesn't face a situation like Sri Lanka, which has warned of a sovereign default, according to Reuters. 

Here are key economic factors that are raising concerns for the Himalayan country, among the poorest in the world:

FOREX RESERVES

Gross foreign exchange reserves fell to $9.6 billion as of mid-March, down 18.5% from mid-July.

The reserves are sufficient to support imports for a little more than six months for the country of around 29 million people, where India and China jostle for influence.

DECLINE IN REMITTANCES

Remittances by Nepali workers, which constitute nearly a quarter of the economy and are crucial for external payments, fell 3.0% to $5.3 billion between mid-July to mid-March, compared with a 5% increase in the same period a year earlier.

While earnings from tourism, which fell sharply after the start of the pandemic in 2020, are slowly picking up, they remain well below pre-COVID levels.

WIDENING TRADE DEFICIT

The trade deficit rose 34.5% year-on-year to 1.16 trillion Nepali rupees ($9.52 billion) in the first eight months of the fiscal year as growth in exports failed to keep pace with surging imports.

RISING GOVERNMENT DEBT

Nepal's government debt increased to 41.4% of gross domestic product in the 2021 fiscal year, from an average of 25.1% between 2016 and 2019, due to increased spending during the pandemic.

HIGH INFLATION

Annual consumer price-based inflation has accelerated to 7.1% in mid-March, a five year high, pushed by rising crude oil and other commodity prices, compared with an average of 5.18% in the past three years.

PRESSURE ON BALANCE OF PAYMENTS

Nepal's balance of payments were in a deficit of $2.17 billion in the first eight months of this fiscal year, compared with a surplus of $565.8 million in the same period a year earlier.

The government has appointed Pushpa Ram KC as the Inspector General of Armed Police Force (APF).

A Cabinet meeting held on Wednesday morning decided to appoint KC as the Inspector General of APF.

Home Minister Bal Krishna Khand had proposed the government to appoint KC as the Inspector General.

He was appointed the Inspector General following the retirement of Shailendra Khanal. 

KC is also getting compulsory retirement on May 1 as per service limit.

CPN (Maoist Centre) Chairman Pushpa Kamal  Dahal has removed the photo of Kulman Ghising, Managing Director of Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA), from the election poster following widespread criticism.

He was criticized from various walks of life for using the photo of a government staffer in the election poster.

The party was also criticized on social media after the cadres started canvassing votes by using the photo of Ghising

The Election Commission has banned the government employees from participating in the campaign of local level elections.

Later, the party exited the poster and removed the photo of Ghising.

The photo of former Energy Minister Janardan Sharma has also been removed from the poster.

Two persons died and seven others sustained injuries when a jeep they were traveling in met with an accident at Bandrebhir near Hilepani in Okhaldhunga on Wednesday.

Among the injured, four are said to be in critical condition.

It has been learnt that all the victims were policemen heading towards Biratnagar in Province-1 from Solukhumbu.

DSP Sukdev Khanal of the District Police Office, Okhaldhunga said that details of the incident are yet to come.

Preparations are being made to send critically injured to Kathmandu via helicopter.