How a preacher sent gunmen into Burkina Faso’s schools
Burkina Faso: When an Islamist preacher took up the fight in Burkina Faso’s northern borderlands almost a decade ago, his only weapon was a radio station. The words he spoke kindled the anger of a frustrated population, and helped turn their homes into a breeding ground for jihad.
Residents of this parched region in the Sahel – a vast band of thorny scrub beneath the Sahara Desert – remember applauding Ibrahim “Malam” Dicko as he denounced his country’s Western-backed government and racketeering police over the airwaves.
“We cheered,” said Adama Kone, a 32-year-old teacher from the town of Djibo near the frontier with Mali, who was one of those thrilled by Dicko’s words. “He understood our anger. He gave the Fulani youth a new confidence.”
Mostly herders, young men like Kone from the Fulani people were feeling hemmed in by more prosperous farmers, whom they felt the government in Ouagadougou favoured.
The preacher successfully exploited their conflicts over dwindling land and water resources, and the frustrations of people angered by corrupt and ineffective government, to launch the country’s first indigenous jihadi movement. That cleared a path for groups affiliated with al Qaeda and Islamic State. (Reuters)
Russian petrol pump’s bikini offer has Twitter in splits
New Delhi: The offer of free fuel to customers wearing bikini by a petrol pump in Russia was nothing less than a bombshell, and many men took up the dare to benefit themselves.
While the owner of the Olvi petrol station in Samara must have female customers in mind while making the offer for some publicity, many males turned up in skimpy bikinis to get free fuel.
Twitter had a hashtag #BikiniDress on the issue. There were witty remarks from the Twitter users. One said: “When you change your character’s gender in a game in the middle of a mission”.
Another pointed out: “Some dudes even went the extra mile with the heels”.
“As a male in California…it’s safe to say I’d strip for a free fill-up nowadays with the damn taxes”.
A Twitter user said: “Me and the boys refuelling our government issued T-34s”. “They had to come in a group, to get fuel for their tanks, with the Russian anthem playing in the backdrop”.
One was reminded of fire hazards by seeing pictures of men in bikinis.
“Those hot bodies are a fire hazard”. (IANS)