FSTDT

Léona Niassène mob #homophobia observers.france24.com

A number of videos posted on social media document a group of men digging up a man’s body, tying his remains with rope and dragging them on the ground, before burning them on a pyre[…]
A man explains to the camera in Wolof and then in French: "We caught a homosexual and we burned him"[…]
Other videos show a large crowd gathering in front of the cemetery of the Léona Niassène mosque, watching the scene. A number of these onlookers film[…]
Senegalese officials have not released the name of the victim, who they refer to by his initials, "CF". CF was in his 30s when he died and was interred by his family in the Léona Niassène cemetery on October 27. A mob dug up his body and burned it the very next day

In many of the videos of the event circulating online, you can hear people saying "goor-jigeen", which literally means "man-woman" in Wolof and is used to refer to gay men

The people who carried out this extreme violence were motivated by rumours that the man was gay[…]
Our team spoke to a member of the Idaho Committee[…]Our Observer wanted to remain anonymous[…]

To my knowledge, this is the first time that a body has been burned in public and that the scene was filmed and shared like this on social media. But exhumations are sadly not new in Senegal
There have been a number of documented cases where groups of men have dug up a body and then brought the remains to the home of the victim’s mother. The victims are people suspected of being gay or, even more commonly, people suspected of being HIV positive

Senegal’s state prosecutor Abasse Yaya Wane released a statement on Sunday stating that an investigation into the matter had been opened. Four people were arrested on Monday[…]Authorities have reported that a fifth person, thought to be an instigator, is on the run. All of the men were identified through the videos posted online

The religious leader of Léona Niassène mosque condemned the incident in a statement published on October 29

Bae Ingyu/Wangia #psycho #sexist #wingnut observers.france24.com

The South Korean men waging a vulgar and violent war against feminists

"Look at all of these feminazis! That’s right, run away! At least you’ll get a bit of exercise!" laughs a man dressed up as the Batman villain the Joker, chasing a group of South Korean female activists and firing at them with a water pistol. The women are afraid; he’s enjoying himself.

Occasionally he glances at the camera: he’s livestreaming the whole episode on social media, where hundreds of people are encouraging him from behind their screens.

The man is Bae Ingyu, also known as "Wangia", which means "prince" in Korean. He’s a YouTuber and a central figure of the "New Men’s Solidarity" movement, which is waging a war against feminists.

In this video, Wangia is visible, armed with his water gun and surrounded by people filming him live for social media. He can be heard saying, ‘So you got water on you? Are you angry? God, there are so many insects here, there are so many. I’m going to kill the insects, they’re insects, right?’ (The term ‘insect’ is used by some feminists to designate anti-feminists).

"I heard that there were f*****g feminists here, I’m going to murder them all," he shouts in another video.

The anti-feminist YouTuber is wearing a long blonde wig and women’s clothing. From the roof of a van, he mocks feminists just metres away who are calling for an extension of abortion rights. He shouts into the microphone, "Waah waah, boohoo, I’m a victim because I’m a woman!"

The woman next to him adds, "I went to have a look at the feminists and got scared because they looked like bears".

"Perhaps I should buy you a tranquiliser gun," Wangia replies.

"It’s the first time he’s got so close to us, close enough to hit us if he wanted to. He started chasing us and shouting insults, but what really scared us was that we didn’t know what was in his water pistol – in South Korea, there have been several acid attacks and cases of ‘semen terrorism’ against women," Kim Ju-hee, a feminist organizer said.

Unnamed University of Lorraine second-year sociology students and "Oh djadja" private chat #racist observers.france24.com

The students took photos of a black classmate and described him as "a giant monkey." They sent emojis of gorillas and wrote that the classmate was "searching for lice in his behind," using a more vulgar term.

The racist slurs were part of a private chat between second-year sociology students at the University of Lorraine in Metz, in eastern France. But the conversion was posted online last week, prompting hundreds of protesters to stage a campus protest on Tuesday. Joined by local politicians and residents, the crowd chanted "No to racism at my university, yes to multiculturalism."

The messages were initially shared in December in a Facebook chat called "Oh djadja," a reference to a song by Aya Nakamura, a French singer of Malian origin. They were then posted on social media on April 25.

University officials condemned the messages and said they would open an investigation.

A student who was targeted by the group and who wished to remain anonymous due to safety concerns said she was "shocked" when she saw the messages.

“I'm not in any of the photos shared in the conversation, but I've experienced racism in that class. Eleven of us in the class are black, out of 36 or 37 in total, and this group of students targeted us.
We'd noticed that these people didn’t want us to sit near them and the divide between white and black students in the class gradually began growing. When we saw the screenshots, we realised what they truly thought of us. We were shocked. We felt betrayed by people we had been studying with for the past two years.
We've received huge support from both organisations that fight against racism and the authorities. We are determined to continue to fight racism on campus with non-violence because we live in a country where this type of language is considered criminal under the law.

Houssainatou Barry, one of the victims of the harassment, told France 2 that the group's behavior toward black students was "humiliating".

They called us monkeys and bonobos. It's humiliating. You're afraid to get up in class and talk because they might make fun of your accent. You're afraid to sit next to them or they might spray you with perfume because they think you smell. It’s unacceptable.

Fatoumata Diaby said members of the group made it clear that they didn't want to sit near black students.

They clearly showed that they didn’t want to sit with us. During group presentations, they didn’t want to mix with us. It’s horrible to call us monkeys. It makes sense that we’re upset. And there are other people who experience much worse things than that.