Nepal
Military: NEPAL
Military branches:
Nepal Army (2012)
Military service age and obligation:
18 years of age for voluntary military service; 15 years of age for military training; no conscription (2012)
Manpower available for military service:
males age 16-49: 6,941,152
females age 16-49: 7,618,397 (2010 est.)
Manpower fit for military service:
males age 16-49: 5,260,878
females age 16-49: 5,947,512 (2010 est.)
Manpower reaching militarily significant age annually:
male: 380,172
female: 367,103 (2010 est.)
Military expenditures:
country comparison to the world: 109
Transnational Issues: NEPAL
Disputes - international:
joint border commission continues to work on contested sections of boundary with India, including the 400 square kilometer dispute over the source of the Kalapani River; India has instituted a stricter border regime to restrict transit of Maoist insurgents and illegal cross-border activities
Refugees and internally displaced persons:
refugees (country of origin): 15,0000-20,000 (Tibet/China); about 43,000 (Bhutan) (2012)
IDPs: 50,000 (remaining from ten-year Maoist insurgency that officially ended in 2006; figure does not include people displaced since 2007 by inter-communal violence and insecurity in the Terai region) (2012)
stateless persons: 800,000 (2011); note - in 2007-2008 the government distributed 2.6 million citizenship certificates to the 3.4 million people without one; the remaining 800,000 without citizenship certificates are not necessarily stateless, and the UNHCR is working with the Nepali Government to clarify their situation; lesser numbers of Bhutanese Hindu refugees of Nepali origin (the Lhotsampa) who were stripped of Bhutanese nationality and forced to flee their country in the late 1980s and early 1990s - and undocumented Tibetan refugees who arrived in Nepal prior to the 1990s - are considered stateless
Illicit drugs:
illicit producer of cannabis and hashish for the domestic and international drug markets; transit point for opiates from Southeast Asia to the West