Malawians mourning Paris attacks

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…Critics call it acting out of ‘peer pressure’

A cross section of Malawians have expressed their solidarity with France after terrorist attacks that saw at least 120 people dead.

On social media, a number of Malawians have shaded their profile pictures with the colour of the flag of France in what Facebook has said is a sign of solidarity with the European nation that has been hit by the terrorists as a revenge of their actions in Syria where they are fighting the Islamic state.

Malawi mourns victims of Paris attacks
Malawi mourns victims of Paris attacks

However, a good number of other Malawians have faulted the sympathy that Malawians are having over the attacks that have happened in France saying that they are just acting under peer pressure.

“A lot of people died in Kenya and nobody changed their profile pictures, others died in the flooding here and there were no Malawi flags put on profile pictures, what is this craziness with changing profile pictures for France?” asked a social commentator on Facebook.

“A lot of Malawians like to pray for other countries, our country is falling apart and we are doing nothing about it yet we are worried about events in France. It makes me sad,” another person wrote critiquing the solidarity with France.

“People are dying in Burundi, 43 died in Lebanon and there was nothing that we posted, now that it is in Paris we are all getting angry. This is just being influenced by the powerful western media,” said another person on Facebook.

Those who have changed their profile pictures have not come out strongly to justify their solidarity. A social media analyst has said that not all Malawians shading their profile pictures are in solidarity with France.

“Most people on the Malawi social media like to go along with the flow without really knowing what is happening or what it means, I would like to think for most of the people shading their profiles it is for the same reason,” he said to Malawi24.