BIDUR, Nepal (AP) — Rajendra Dawadi was inside his classroom when the school's accountant rushed in with a warning: Floodwaters were racing through Nepal’s Trishuli Valley, tearing apart homes, bridges and entire villages.
Then a teacher received another warning by phone. Moments later, a parent arrived to take her child home. The danger had not yet been confirmed, but Dawadi had little time to act. He rang the school bell and ordered his students and staff out of the building and toward higher ground.
“I immediately decided to stop ... school and (get the children out),” he told The Associated Press.
As he followed them to a nearby hill, the floodwaters rose behind him. From the safety of the hillside, he turned to watch the school where he had once been a student — and where he had spent years teaching — disappear beneath a torrent of water, mud, boulders and debris. Two staff members could not make it and remain missing.
Dawadi’s decision to evacuate the school saved at least 900 students from last week’s devastating flash floods in Nepal, unleashed after a glacial collapse in the Himalayas. The disaster killed over 900 people across Nepal and China, while more than 4,700 remain missing.
As Nepal grapples with the catastrophic natural disaster, Dawadi’s story has emerged as a striking example of foresight and courage.
The Tribhuvan Trishuli Secondary School in the Trishuli Valley of north-central Nepal had 1,643 students. At least 900 were on campus that morning, while some students were still making their way to school. Dawadi ordered those already there to leave and called bus drivers, telling them to only stop at safer places.
One bus, packed with students, had already reached the school when Dawadi told the driver to turn back, he said. The bus crossed a newly constructed bridge and, moments later, the old bridge beside it collapsed.
For Dawadi, the scale of the destruction has become personal, as the school had been both his workplace and a large part of his life.
“I have no words. I got education from that school. And I gave education at that school,” he said.
The destruction of Dawadi’s school was not an isolated loss.
Across northern Nepal, the floods have left thousands of children without classrooms, disrupted their education and raised fears that the disaster could cost them months of schooling. Charity group Save the Children said in a statement that at least 69 schools in northern Nepal have been completely destroyed, putting the education of nearly 19,000 students at risk.
Dawadi’s quick thinking and swift response during the disaster have been hailed as an act of heroism. When he returned to the site of the school days later, parents embraced him as they thanked him for saving their children.
“Their parents hugged me, they cried with me,” he said. “They were emotional.”
Student Suvina Tamang, 14, said the school’s three-story building was swept away shortly after all the students had been evacuated.
“I will thank him when I see him” for saving my life, she said.
But Dawadi is reluctant to accept the role of hero. For him, rescuing his students was his responsibility. Now he says, students will need psychological counseling. Then, lessons must begin again, even if the school must temporarily relocate.
His appeal to the Nepalese government is simple: rebuild the schools and get children back to classes.
——
Associated Press journalist Rishi Lekhi contributed to this report. Saaliq reported from New Delhi.
Rajendra Dawadi, a school teacher of Tribhuvan Trishuli Secondary School, looks on in Trishuli Valley in Nepal's Nuwakot district, Monday, Aug. 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)
Rajendra Dawadi, a school teacher of Tribhuvan Trishuli Secondary School, talks on his mobile phone in Trishuli Valley in Nepal's Nuwakot district, Monday, Aug. 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)
ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Niger's junta survived its most severe internal threat since seizing power in a 2023 coup when renegade soldiers staged a mutiny over the weekend, triggering a 24-hour standoff that ended with Russian intervention.
The mostly young soldiers took some of their colleagues hostage at a strategic military base in the capital, Niamey, and fired shots near the presidential palace 12 kilometers (7 miles) away before being subdued by presidential guard forces aided by Russia’s Africa Corps paramilitary group, according to several analysts and diplomats.
Russia's ambassador to Niger, Viktor Voropayev, told Russian media Niger had requested support from the Russian force and the mutineers were “neutralized, particularly thanks to the intervention” of Africa Corps. Nigerien authorities are yet to comment on the event.
Analysts say the clashes at the Base 101 at the Niamey international airport could have gone either way because of the mutineers’ determination and large numbers until the Russian troops stepped in.
It’s the second time this year the Africa Corps has intervened to fend off an attack on power centers in Africa’s Sahel region. In May, the Russian troops helped quell massive attacks by jihadis and rebels across junta-led Mali.
In a region known to be the global epicenter of terrorism, “fighting jihadis comes as a second priority (for the Africa Corps), but the first priority is to sustain regimes and they are succeeding in this,” said Wassim Nasr, a senior research fellow at the Soufan Center, a New York-based think tank.
Across the Sahel region, a vast arid expanse south of the Sahara Desert, militaries that grabbed power citing security failures have severed ties with longtime Western security allies and turned to Russia. They first welcomed the Moscow-backed Wagner private mercenary group before it was replaced by Africa Corps under the direct command of the Russian Defense Ministry.
It is not known how many Russian mercenaries are in the Sahel’s three junta-led countries of Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso, but varying estimates put the number between 1,700 and 2000.
Meanwhile, in the Central African Republic, Wagner is estimated to have around 1,000 forces
As Russia competes with the United States, Europe and China for greater influence across Africa, the Russian forces have helped Moscow establish its hold in the countries on many fronts, from the economy to security and politics.
“The security arrangements that are currently in place, whether it’s counterinsurgency support, military equipment, and other economic deals along the side, are heavily dependent on the leadership of these three countries,” said Beverly Ochieng, a security analyst specializing in the Sahel for Control Risks consultancy.
Although Russia has limited resources to deploy in these countries, “they really know how to balance the diplomacy, counterinsurgency, and the sort of geopolitics to demonstrate that they’re an all-weather friend,” said Ochieng.
The arrangement with Wagner and later Africa Corps has proven to be “good business for Russia (at) a low cost,” said Nasr from the Soufan Center.
While the Russian military partnerships have protected the juntas from security threats, everything else has worsened on the security front in the Sahel as armed groups increasingly target cities and urban centers in competing for influence and territories.
Niger’s Niamey airport had been attacked twice by jihadis this year: in June by the al-Qaeda-linked JNIM jihadi group, killing 11 soldiers and two civilians, and in January by the Islamic State group’s Sahel Province, which targeted expensive drones.
Threats like this weekend’s in Niamey could make the juntas prioritize their protection even more at the detriment of overall security.
Although the juntas have pushed for more sovereignty and launched campaigns presenting themselves as more independent, the events in Niger "highlight the vulnerabilities of a regime whose stability increasingly relies on a Russian partnership,” writes the Senegal-based Timbuktu Institute for Peace Studies. “The intervention of an external partner to help contain an internal crisis raises a central question: how far can the pursuit of strategic autonomy go when it is accompanied by a growing dependence on Moscow?”
The success of Russia in keeping juntas in power could also bolster Moscow’s appeal for a number of African governments, said Nathaniel Powell, West Africa analyst at Oxford Analytica.
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said recently the country is ready to offer its support to African countries in their fight against terrorism. But countries are likely to be cautious about any partnership involving the Africa Corps, mainly because of its reputation for human rights abuses, analysts say.
Nonetheless, “having a foreign anti-coup force has advantages in that they have no local interests that could compete for their loyalty, and might be seen to be militarily superior to national military formations, thus deterring potential coup-makers,” said Powell.
FILE - This undated photograph handed out by the French military shows three Russian mercenaries, right, in northern Mali. (French Army via AP, File)
FILE - Captain Ibrahim Traoré of Burkina Faso, left, General Assimi Goïta of Mali, center, and General Abdourahamane Tchiani of Niger attend the second summit on security and development in Bamako, Mali, Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2025. (Mali Government Information Center via AP, File)
