Quotes of the Day

Though the economy has stalled and high-end tourists have stayed away during the eight years that Nepal has been racked by a Maoist insurgency, the impoverished Himalayan kingdom could always count on two sources of foreign revenue: aid groups and backpackers. Now they are under threat, too. Earlier this month, Maoist guerrillas fighting to overthrow the monarchy and the country's feudal system called for a protracted national transport blockade to starve the capital, Kathmandu, and so to "pressure" the government to call a cease-fire, according to a statement from Maoist spokesman Jhhakku Prasad Subedi.

The rebel blockade achieved its immediate intent. Roads were jammed across the country, the capital ran short of diesel and gas, and the price of vegetables—most of which were left to rot in fields—soared to 30 times the normal level. Some 300 tourists nationwide were left stranded with little option but to leave Nepal on foot. They included 200 Indians, who trudged south over the border to safety. Elsewhere, Maoists stoned the vehicle of a French couple attempting to return to Kathmandu from western Nepal, and the Nepalese army had to escort nine British travelers driving back from Chitwan game park. While embassies hurriedly revised travel advisories, the United Nations warned that it would have to pull out of Nepal entirely if the Maoists continued to extort cash from aid groups, businesses and even schools across the country.

As ever, Nepal's 26.5 million people are caught in the middle. "The Maoists have threatened to severely punish us if we defy the embargo," says Chitwan farmer Ashman Tamang. "But we'll starve if this continues."

• Alex Perry
• Maoist rebels target Nepal's tourism and transport industries, bringing the Himalayan kingdom to a near-halt