Hamas fights with a patchwork of weapons built by Iran, China, Russia and North Korea

Iranian sniper rifles. AK-47 assault rifles from China and Russia. North Korean- and Bulgarian-built rocket-propelled grenades. Anti-tank rockets secretly cobbled together in Gaza.

An Associated Press analysis of more than 150 videos and photos taken in the three months of combat since Hamas launched its Oct. 7 surprise attack on Israel shows the militant group has amassed a diverse patchwork arsenal of weapons from around the world – much of it smuggled past a 17-year blockade that was aimed at stopping just such a military buildup.

Those weapons have proved deadly during weeks of intense urban warfare in Gaza, where Hamas fighters are typically armed only with what they can carry and employ hit-and-run tactics against lopsided Israeli advantages in arms and technology. Hamas propaganda videos posted over the past few weeks appear to show the shootings of Israeli soldiers recorded through the scopes of sniper rifles.

“We are searching everywhere for weapons, for political support, for money,” Hamas spokesman Ghazi Hamad recently said in an interview with the AP, declining to discuss specifically who has been providing its weapons or how they were snuck into Gaza.

Experts who reviewed the images for AP were able to identify distinguishing features and markings that show where many of the weapons wielded by Hamas fighters were manufactured. But such an analysis does not provide evidence of whether they were provided by the governments of those countries or purchased in a thriving Middle East black market, with weapons and components listed for sale on social media in such war-torn countries as Iraq, Libya and Syria.

What is clear, however, is that many of the images show Hamas militants toting weapons that appear to be relatively new, evidence the group has found ways of getting arms past the air-and-sea blockade of the Gaza Strip — possibly by boat, through tunnels or concealed in shipments of food and other goods.

“The majority of their arms are of Russian, Chinese or Iranian origin, but North Korean weapons and those produced in former Warsaw Pact countries are also present in the arsenal,” said N.R. Jenzen-Jones, an expert in military arms who is director of the Australian-based Armament Research Services. 

Despite the buildup, Israel maintains a massive advantage, with a powerful array of modern tanks, artillery, helicopter gunships and an air force of U.S.-made fighter jets. Israel’s military says it has killed more than 7,000 Hamas militants, compared to the deaths of at least 510 of its own soldiers, more than 330 of whom were killed in Hamas’ initial attack. The Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says more than 23,000 Palestinians have died in the fighting, though it does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.

Imagery reviewed by the AP showed a Hamas arsenal featuring weapons ranging from small arms and machine guns to shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles and craft-produced anti-tank projectiles.

Among the most distinctive is the oversized AM-50 Sayyad (Arabic for “hunter”), an Iranian-made sniper rifle that fires a .50- caliber round powerful enough to punch through up to an inch of steel. It has previously been spotted on battlefields in Yemen, Syria, and in the hands of Shia militias in Iraq.

Hamas fighters have also been seen carrying an array of Soviet-era weapons that have been copied and manufactured in Iran and China. They include variants of the Russian-designed 9M32 Strela, a portable heat-seeking anti-aircraft missile system.

Jenzen-Jones said a grip stock on one of the missile launchers a fighter was seen holding is distinctive to a variant manufactured in China and used by the Iranian military and its allies, including Hezbollah in Lebanon, a group closely aligned with Hamas.

Weapons recovered from Hamas fighters by the Israel Defense Forces include what appear to be Italian-designed TC/6 anti-tank mines. However, Seán Moorhouse, a former British Army officer and explosive ordinance disposal expert, said it too had been copied by Iran’s arms industry.

The Israel Defense Forces and U.S. officials have long accused Iran of supplying money, training and weapons to Hamas and allied militants in Gaza, including the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. 

Iranian representatives at the United Nations did not respond to emails from the AP about whether their government supplied weapons to Hamas, including AM-50 Sayyad sniper rifles. However, a week after AP sought comment, Hamas posted a video purporting to show militants in Gaza using machining equipment to make their own copies of the rifle.

Master gunsmith Don Fraley reviewed that Dec. 20 video and said it would be nearly impossible for Hamas to manufacture a safe and accurate .50-caliber sniper rifle with the rudimentary equipment shown.

“You’re going to have to be a rock star at machine shop work. And I didn’t see any of that,” said Fraley, a former U.S. Army Special Forces soldier and sniper for the Kentucky State Police. “These folks are just trying to cover their tracks.”

An Israeli military official familiar with Hamas’ arsenal said the group uses a combination of smuggled “off-the-shelf” weaponry, including AK-47s, RPGs and anti-aircraft missiles, as well as a large collection of home-grown weapons often made with easily accessible civilian materials.

For instance, the official said, the group uses lathes to shape metal into rockets and mortars, and fits them with explosives manufactured from fertilizers. Other home-made weapons include a launcher capable of firing 14 rockets simultaneously and the “Zuwari” drone, an explosives-laden aircraft that was used to strike Israeli observation towers and knock out cameras on Oct. 7.

“There is a huge military/defense industry inside the Gaza Strip,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity under military briefing rules.

The official said most of the smuggled weapons are believed to have been brought in through Egypt and are generally easy to purchase and did not need to be supplied by the country of origin.

One such weapon seen in the hands of Hamas fighters is a version of Chinese machine guns known as the Type 80, a model that has also been copied by the Iranians and renamed as the PKM-T80.

Jonathan Ferguson, the curator of firearms at the Royal Armouries Museum in England, said from what he could see from the photos and videos, versions of the gun made in China and Iran were so similar as to be indistinguishable.

Ferguson was also able to identify a rocket-propelled grenade with marks showing it was made in Bulgaria. AP previously reported Hamas used RPGs with a distinctive red stripe indicating they were made in North Korea.

Among the more sophisticated Hamas home-grown weapons is a copy of a Russian anti-tank rocket called the PG-7VR, which is specifically designed to defeat reactive-armor systems like those used on Israel’s Merkava Mark VI main battle tanks. Such tanks are covered with explosive-filed plates that explode outwards to disrupt incoming projectiles.

In propaganda videos posted in October, masked militants are seen assembling a version of the Russian rocket that Hamas has renamed the Al-Yasin 105, in honor of the group’s founder killed in an Israeli air strike in 2004. While the original Russian version can melt through up to two feet of steel armor, experts say it’s not clear whether the home-brewed explosives in the Hamas knock-off are as potent.

Hamas has posted multiple videos of fighters firing the rockets at Israeli tanks and armored personal carriers. Those videos are typically cut off after the warhead explodes, making it impossible to independently verify whether the target was destroyed.

Also, in a tactic borrowed from the battlefields of Ukraine, Hamas appears to have obtained or copied Iranian-designed drones that pack warheads that explode when crashed into their targets. Off- the-shelf, Chinese-made quadcopter drones have also been adapted to drop explosives on tanks and troops.

“The availability of commercial off-the-shelf unmanned aerial vehicles, these light consumer drones, has radically changed warfare in recent years,” Jenzen-Jones said. “We’ve seen them, obviously, in Syria, in Yemen, in Iraq, in Ukraine, and now in Gaza.”

AP

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine ground commander says his troops, now on 'active defence', can still surprise

His demeanour is dispassionate and his message is clear: Ukraine's ground forces are focused first and foremost on defence along the eastern stretch of the 1,000-km (600-mile) front under his command.

They should not be counted out, however, as an offensive force.

In an interview late last week, Colonel-General Oleksandr Syrskyi - a key figure in Kyiv's response to Russia's full-scale invasion - underlined the shifting realities on the battlefield that have tempered hopes of a major Ukrainian breakthrough.

Despite initial optimism for a much-vaunted Ukrainian summer counteroffensive, Russian defences largely held, limiting early advances to a few kilometres in some spots before Moscow's forces hit back elsewhere.

"Our goals remain unchanged: holding our positions ... exhausting the enemy by inflicting maximum losses," Syrskyi, Ukraine's number two commander, told Reuters.

The 58-year-old, wearing combat fatigues and speaking cautiously at an undisclosed location in the eastern region of Kharkiv, noted how Russia was looking to seize the initiative as the invasion neared its second anniversary.

They were pressing in multiple directions along the eastern front, Syrskyi said, with the aim of wresting full control of the industrial Donbas region despite heavy losses in men and supplies.

Russia also hopes to claw back ground it lost in the southern Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, he added.

Ukrainian troops, for their part, are staging smaller counter-attacks in what Syrskyi described as "active defence": keeping the enemy on its toes by seeking opportunities to strike while they look to regain the initiative.

Engagements on both sides are on a smaller scale to conserve ammunition and men, he added, suggesting Russia has also learned to react and stem losses.

"Offensives at the level of a battalion are a major rarity," said Syrskyi, adding that wider use of drones has forced the change in tactic.

Ukraine says it does not have enough ammunition to sustain the desired level of attacks, and has urged Western partners to do more to supply it.

'CUNNING AND COURAGEOUS'

Syrskyi has commanded troops against combined Russian forces since 2014, when he earned his call sign "snow leopard". They fought a Moscow-backed insurgency in eastern Ukraine using "tactics that were similar to how this cat hunts," he explained.

"This creature is very careful, cunning and courageous."

He burnished his reputation in September 2022, leading a lightning counteroffensive to retake swathes of the Kharkiv region which stunned Russian forces into a retreat.

The operation capitalised on Ukraine's strengths, particularly nimble units capable of bypassing fortified positions to drive deep into enemy territory.

But Syrskyi's record as a commander is not unquestioned. Through much of early 2023, he led Ukraine's defence of the eastern city of Bakhmut, where thousands of soldiers on both sides are widely believed to have been killed in the deadliest battle of the conflict so far.

Some military analysts questioned whether fighting for a ruined city that was ultimately lost was worth so many dead and wounded. Syrskyi said Ukraine harmed Russia's war effort there by neutralising the Wagner mercenary group.

Moscow still considers him a threat, Syrskyi said, evidenced by more than one assassination attempt.

"Let's say this: we're familiar with rocket strikes," he said.

With artillery and trench warfare yielding few major advances, Syrskyi agreed with Ukraine's top commander Valery Zaluzhny that technology would likely play a major role if Kyiv wanted to win the war.

Electronic warfare has intensified over the past year, Syrskyi said, as the proliferation of drones and other guided weaponry has created more opportunities for jamming.

To gain an advantage, Ukrainian forces need higher quantities of advanced kit that works across multiple frequencies at once.

But there were still opportunities to advance by creating what Syrskyi called a "artificial advantage", just as Ukraine had done in the fall of 2022.

"No matter what, there will be certain areas that will be heavily defended, and other areas less defended," he said.

The key, Syrskyi added, was to concentrate forces at the most vulnerable point at the best time, a principle which "has not lost its relevance".

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

‘Time is running out’ for US aid approval – Kiev

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba has warned that “time is running out” for US lawmakers to approve additional military aid to Kiev, claiming that costs for Western nations will be far higher if Russian forces are allowed to defeat the former Soviet republic.

Providing more money and weapons to Ukraine will help the US and its NATO allies avoid a direct confrontation with Russia, Kuleba said in an ABC News interview posted on Monday. “Whatever the price of supporting Ukraine is now, the price of fixing the mess in the world if Ukraine loses will be much, much higher,” he added.

Washington, the biggest sponsor of what some US politicians have called a “proxy war” in Ukraine, has run out of money for Kiev after burning through $113 billion in congressionally approved aid packages. President Joe Biden’s latest funding request, which includes $61.4 billion in additional military and financial assistance for Ukraine, has stalled because of increasing opposition from Republican lawmakers. Senator J.D. Vance and other Republican critics have argued that Biden lacks a strategy for victory in Ukraine and is merely prolonging the bloodshed by continuing to send aid.

Kuleba claimed that a Russian victory in Ukraine would send a dangerous message to other adversaries of the US. “If the West is not able to stop Russia in Ukraine, who else is it able to stop in other parts of the world?”he asked. The diplomat vowed that Ukrainians “will fight with shovels” if they run out of weapons.

ABC noted that Russian forces have made territorial gains in recent weeks and have taken the upper hand in terms of firepower. However, Kuleba argued that the gains were “minimal,” and he denied that Russian President Vladimir Putin is now in a stronger position. “Hitler pretended to be very strong for many years, and we all know how it ended,” he said.

Asked about drone attacks in Moscow’s territory, the Ukrainian FM said it was important to show that the conflict was having an adverse impact on the Russian people. “President Putin must explain to his people why all of this is happening,” he said.

Kuleba also brushed off a report last week showing that an internal Pentagon investigation found the US had failed to properly track more than $1 billion worth of weaponry sent to Ukraine. “Everything you give to us is used for the best purpose of ending this war with Ukraine’s victory as soon as possible,” he said.

The diplomat insisted that reports of US weapons being trafficked from Ukraine to other parts of the world were “fake,” adding “So don’t believe in fakes, believe in Ukraine.”

Reuters/RT

I am writing this piece from Lagos. “No Gree” is what you now hear at every moment, every corner. I first heard it from our security folks here, then Mr. Mike, our talented gardener. I took a walk on Isaac John, “I know gree,” sounded by those walking on the streets. I, too, began to use it. If you don’t read this, “I know gree!”

In the previous years, the sociolinguistic colloquialism in Nigeria evolved with temporal progression; the New Year peeked with another set of slang, and at the cross-over services and New Year rituals in churches and mosques, it was as if the whole of Nigerians came into unison to declare that 2024’s motto would be “No Gree for anybody.” No Gree for Anybody seems to be a personal avowal to not compromise or concede and to maintain unwavering determination against factors and people that could impede one’s aspirations or thwart the pursuit of one’s desires. So, I join the sociolinguistic affirmation for the year to increase the willingness of the people to not compromise on their fundamentals.

Nigerians have faced different touches of problems transmitted from temporal intervals and systemic frameworks; the general predisposition is an expectation of institutional hindrance forming bulwarks to actualizations. They are social hurdles that an average person must face, and the proliferation of corruption and nepotism in the country has made it a tradition. Many believe that ideas are bound to be futile in attempts to enforce desires because anticipation suggests more failures than successes. Gbemisola Adeoti describes these social problems properly in his poem “The Ambush.” He states,

“The land is a giant whale,
That swallows the sinker, with hook, line, and bait
Aborting dreams of a good catch,
Fishers turn home at dusk,
Blue Peter on empty ships,
All Peters with petered out desires.”

The repercussion of this social situation is the spawning and proliferation of desperate resolves of citizens and the occasioning of a sense of competition, even where they are not necessary. It is believed that nothing comes freely, and things must be taken with heightened reaches and struggles. Hence, Nigerians are always on the move, and with almost everyone trying to outsmart others, you cannot afford to gree for anyone.

When you wake up every morning in a “face me, I face you” apartment; you probably must compete for the small single bathroom that serves like 20 others. You don’t have to believe me, but I still visit and stay overnight in such places once in a while. You cannot feel hardship if you don’t experience one. You will then join another long queue for available buses, run at your best, and struggle through the crowd to get a seat in a Danfo or to stand in a BRT Bus. My friends who know that I do this have warned me several times to stop. I have ridden on Okada and held tight to the waist of the young driver so that we both die together. When you pay, and the driver or his conductor refuses to give you your change, you shout at them, shine your eyes, and insist profusely, no dulling. I can’t even wait to collect my change! Loads of similar events continue till night. When you think you will finally get to rest, you then realize that there is no power supply, and you must still struggle with giant mosquitos that hawk over your head while you sweat profusely in the heat and dark. How can a professor endure this? I do, which is why this essay is possible.

So, this push and pull and the hustle and bustle tradition have grown to be in different dimensions. You probably would not want a No for an answer and must find a way to get things done by “fire and by force.” Well, no matter how this has spawned out, it could be a positive muse that could be built upon.

However, one thing is to retort the slang affirmatively, and another thing is to cultivate the culture thereof. To grow, one must maintain a decision and give it all to achieve set goals. It is a way to look overbearing challenges and limitations in the eye with settled convictions about aspirations. It is certain that people who have achieved different feats would have something to say about the slang and how they have lived it. The growth of my career as a teacher has showcased severally strong resolutions, and I was able to live every bit of it. One probably would expect that an average lawyer or other professionals at the time our dreams back then were germinating had made the right decision about career path. Although the prestige given to lecturers in those days and the remunerations that followed were better than what they are today, the financial projection of a teacher was still not the best compared to some other available professions. But despite these possibilities, I no gree for anybody, and that resolution has constantly defined my path and taken me to the echelons of the profession.

However, the slang could just be mere social euphoric expressions and displays of vibing with the sociolinguistic trends of the day without appropriate will and actions to substantiate them. It must mean to match every resisting energy with similar energy. In the case of denial of personal rights or extortion, it simply implies not compromising on those rights and legally protecting oneself against those opportunists. It goes into resisting corruption in the chains of command and not giving that 200 Naira note to that police officer who pulled you over for egunje. But one cannot resist infringement on fundamental human rights or extortion without arming oneself with the necessary information and compliance with all necessary due diligence.

The right perspective of No Gree for anybody speaks to Nkechi, who sells daily supplies to not just give in to her competitors that threaten her patronage. It, instead, points out that you probably need to rebrand for the year and not gree to be zeroed out by outlets that have stretched beyond your reach. It says that many thousands sell water in traffic jams but that you can beat the competition by adding a little extra. We have heard the story of Michael Iloduma, “Micheal the Corporate Pure Water Seller,” who sells water in suits and corporate outfits to draw attention and those that advertise with British English. No Gree for Anybody is giving your oppositions or alternatives a run by thinking outside the box.

The slang is to not get tired of the delay in promotions at work and career growth but restrategize to not fall into the same traps any longer. It is no surprise that an average successful man in Africa who has either grown from nothing or built on something would not have grown without an extraordinary push. Toyin Falola, the original idan man who clubs at night and writes in the morning, had climbed through the slippery slope to achieve what he has. The many popular names that have been at the apex of professional imaginations of growth have not done that with mere affirmative statements; they have pushed the ordinary.

As Nigerians decide to show some levels of individual Choko, to achieve their desires, we must not forget that there is a need for collective choko, to reform the nation to put an end to the endless ambush in the Land that the talented Gbemisola Adeoti refers to as the “saber-toothed tiger.” The history of Nigerian democracy and contemporary political issues have shown that the Nigerian populace has been interpreted to give in easily to political disrespect by the leaders. Corrupt practices and accusations against consecutive ministers of the same Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation are evidence of some assumed gullibility. The same scenario happened to the past two Accountant Generals of the Federation, with each allegedly embezzling billions they could take. The circle of corruption keeps widening and needs the no gree for anybody’s mentality to stop it.

It is high time the Nigerian population started asking questions and sustaining them with actions that bring the governments at all levels to account and their toes. This year and the years to come should be the start of non-compromising convictions to not gree for a failing state. The nation must not concede to manipulative politicking, disregard, and constant abuse and misappropriation of the nation’s resources. This cannot also be achieved without strategic resistance, vehement and steadfast demands for change, and commitment to cut the chain of corruption short from the populace.

Whether individually or collectively, it seems quite impossible to achieve much without backing the resolution with convincing will and pragmatic actions. It is then that the affirmation would not just end on social media platforms but transform into the reality of all of us.

While one resists, wisdom is also profitable to direct. At some point, one must move ground for constructive oppositions and reasonable objections. Bullheaded disposition could sometimes be the inception of stupidity as well as the heralding of failure. One must know when to fight and when not to, and, most importantly, one must know how to fight and what to fight for. It does not mean one should rudely and unreasonably confront those who feed or pay for one’s services or goods.

Gree for your boss! Falola Baba Idan has no company to give you another job o!!

The secret to productivity doesn’t lie in overhauling your schedule or becoming an expert multi-tasker. 

Instead, to get more work done in fewer hours — without burning out — try timeboxing.

Setting clear guidelines for how you spend your time and energy is the easiest and most effective way to boost productivity, according to new research from Salesforce subsidiary Slack and research firm Qualtrics. 

Regardless of job tier, the survey of more than 10,000 desk workers and executives found an ideal balance of focus time, collaboration time, social connection and downtime to be productive while maintaining a healthy work-life balance.

On average, desk workers say the ideal amount of focus time is about four hours a day, while the majority agrees that two hours, max, should be spent in meetings and on collaboration. In a typical eight-hour workday, that leaves two hours to be split between social connection, like grabbing coffee with a co-worker, and rest.

“Focus time, collaboration time, connection and rest are like the macronutrients of a workday,” says David Ard, the senior vice president of employee success at Slack and Salesforce. “The right balance gives you the energy you need to work your best.”

Proactively scheduling blocks of time on your calendar to focus — and a few breaks throughout the day to restore your ability to focus — is “really critical” for productivity, says Christina Janzer, senior vice president of research and analytics at Slack. 

“That’s where you have the time and space to be innovative and creative, to effectively accomplish the tasks on your plate and reflect on longer-term career goals,” she explains. 

Skipping breaks isn’t just counterproductive — it can also be detrimental to your mental health. Employees who rarely or never take breaks at work are nearly 2x more likely to burn out than those who do, Slack and Qualtrics found.

Their break-taking counterparts, on the other hand, show higher scores for work-life balance, productivity, job satisfaction, and a greater ability to manage stress and anxiety.

Timeboxing, of course, isn’t a perfect science. You’ll need to adjust the allocations and make some tradeoffs to craft a realistic schedule, but even taking small steps to incorporate timeboxing into your schedule can “work wonders” for your well-being and focus, says Janzer.

“What we see from our data is that people are overwhelmed trying to do too much and balance all of these competing priorities, this is one approach that can help,” says Janzer. “This feeling of always needing to be ‘on,’ to do it all, can really hurt both employees and businesses.”

CNBC

African Export-Import Bank and the United Bank for Africa have disbursed $2.25bn of the $3.3bn oil-for-cash loan facility arranged by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited.

In a statement from UBA over the weekend, an initial disbursement of $2.25bn has been made and a second tranche of $1.05bn is expected to be disbursed subsequently.

UBA, which is the Local Arranger and Onshore Account Bank for the transaction said that the five-year facility carries a margin of 6.0 per cent per annum above the three-month secured overnight financing rate.

The transaction structure has an embedded price balance mechanism where 90 per cent of all excess cash from the sale of the committed barrels (after debt service) will be released to the borrower, while the balance of 10 per cent will be used to repay the facility, effectively shortening the final maturity of the facility and freeing cash flow from future pledged cargoes for use by Nigeria.

Commenting on the successful financial close, Afreximbank President and Chairman of the Board of Directors, Benedict Oramah, said, “This facility further demonstrates the Bank’s commitment to supporting African economies, when such assistance is most needed. Afreximbank stands by its member countries in good and difficult times. The disbursement of the initial $2.25bn under the facility will support Nigeria’s long-term economic stability, ease access to import financing for raw materials and essential goods, and support industrialisation and trade development efforts.  We are pleased that despite the typical year-end pressures, our partners and investors committed the funds required in record time. We thank them for their support.”

The NNPCL Group Chief Executive Officer, Mele Kolo Kyari, said that the proceeds of the facility have been made available to the federal government as one of the strategies to improving macro-economic stability.

“The participation of global, international and regional syndication firms is a further testament to the lending market’s appetite for financing sponsored by NNPCL and signifies solid market confidence in Nigeria,” Kyari said.

Punch

About 45 passengers in three fully loaded 15-seater commercial buses are reported to have been abducted by armed men in Orokam, along the Otukpo-Enugu Road in Ogbadigbo Local Government Area, LGA, of Benue state.

It was gathered from an eyewitness and driver of one of the commercial transportation companies in Makurdi, who narrowly escaped the ambush with his passengers, that the incident occurred at about 3:30pm last Thursday.

The heavily armed men were reported to have ambushed the ill-fated commercial vehicles when they sprang from the nearby forests in Orokam and forced their drivers at gunpoint to pull over.

According to him, “it was easy for the armed men to stop the vehicles because that portion of the road is very bad.

“The first person that came out of the bush was a heavily built young man who came out carrying an automatic rifle and a chain of bullets round his body.

“I saw three of them come out of the bush with guns, this was at about 3:30pm on Thursday in broad daylight.

“Their target was obviously commercial buses, maybe because of the number of passengers they could harvest ransom. In this particular instance, they took passengers in three-loaded buses that were heading toward Otukpo.

“My saving grace was that a J-5 articulated vehicle was in my front. So when we were all stopped, before they got to my vehicle, I jumped out and ran into the bush, and all my passengers also followed. Luckily, none of my passengers were caught by the armed men.

“We ran into the bush, leaving our valuables, including phones, and they did not touch them. All they were looking for were the occupants of the bus.

“They took all their victims into the forest. After hiding in the bush for close to 30 minutes, when we realised it was safe to come out, we started running back to our bus to flee.

“At that point, we saw soldiers on motorbikes and a hilux van asking us where the armed went with the victims.

“This happened in-between a police and army checkpoint in Orokam after the Trailer Park at the bad portion of the road.

“Since I started driving, I used to hear stories of people being kidnapped on the road, I saw it happening live and I almost became a victim. I cannot thank God enough.”

Meanwhile, it was gathered that the armed men have already opened negotiations with family members of the kidnapped passengers for the payment of ransom for their release.

A manager in one of the commercial transportation companies at the busy Wurumum Park who spoke on condition of anonymity disclosed that the armed men initially asked for N15 million for each passenger, “but they negotiated and settled for N3 million for each of the passengers. This totals N135 million for all the abducted passengers.

“Some of the family members came here to find out if we have any details or are in touch with the kidnappers, but we told them that our company was not involved.

“They lamented that they had reached agreements with the kidnappers, and while trying to resolve how the N3 million they demanded would be sent to them, the phone line went off and they have not been able to reach the armed men anymore.

“So it is like they have been moving from one park to the other to find out the companies that own the buses involved in the unfortunate incident. But from what we heard one of the vehicles has its head office in Gboko.”

When contacted, Benue Police Public Relations Officer, Superintendent, Catherine Anene, said, “I don’t have that report yet.”

Vanguard

White House says 'it's the right time' for Israel to scale back Gaza war as fighting hits 100 days

The White House said Sunday that “it’s the right time” for Israel to scale back its military offensive in the Gaza Strip, as Israeli leaders again vowed to press ahead with their operation against the territory’s ruling Hamas militant group.

The comments exposed the growing differences between the close allies on the 100th day of the war.

Also Sunday, Israeli warplanes struck targets in Lebanon following a Hezbollah missile attack that killed two Israeli civilians — an older woman and her adult son — in northern Israel. The exchange of fire underscored concerns that the Gaza violence could trigger wider fighting across the region.

The war in Gaza, launched by Israel in response to the unprecedented Oct. 7 attack by Hamas, has killed nearly 24,000 Palestinians, devastated vast swaths of Gaza, driven around 85% of the territory’s 2.3 million residents from their homes and pushed a quarter of the population into starvation.

Speaking on CBS, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the U.S. has been speaking to Israel “about a transition to low-intensity operations” in Gaza.

“We believe it’s the right time for that transition. And we’re talking to them about doing that,” he said on “Face the Nation.”

Israel launched the offensive after the Hamas attack killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 250 others hostage. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to press ahead until Hamas is destroyed and all of the more than 100 hostages still in captivity are freed.

The war has sent tensions soaring across the region, with Israel trading fire almost daily with Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group and Iranian-backed militias attacking U.S. targets in Syria and Iraq. In addition, Yemen’s Houthi rebels have been targeting international shipping, drawing a wave of U.S. airstrikes last week.

Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, said his group won’t stop until a cease-fire is in place for Gaza.

“We are continuing, and our front is inflicting losses on the enemy and putting pressure on displaced people,” Nasrallah said in a speech, referring to the tens of thousands of Israelis who have fled northern border areas.

In other developments, tens of thousands of people in Europe and the Middle East took to the streets Sunday to mark the 100th day of the war. Opposing demonstrations either demanded the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas or called for a cease-fire in Gaza.

In Israel, supporters of the hostages and their families wrapped up a 24-hour protest in Tel Aviv calling on the government to win their immediate release.

INTERNATIONAL PRESSURE

The unprecedented level of death and destruction in Gaza has led South Africa to lodge allegations of genocide against Israel at the International Court of Justice. Israel denies the accusations and has vowed to press ahead with its offensive even if the court in The Hague issues an interim order for it to stop.

Israel has also been under growing international pressure to end the war in Gaza, but it has so far been shielded by U.S. diplomatic and military support. Israel argues that any cease-fire would hand victory to Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007 and is bent on Israel’s destruction.

“It’s been 100 days, yet we will not stop until we win,” Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Sunday.

But differences with the Americans have begun to emerge. During a visit to the region last week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken renewed his calls on Israel to do more to reduce civilian casualties and increase the supplies of desperately needed humanitarian aid entering Gaza.

In recent weeks, Israel has scaled back operations in northern Gaza, the initial target of the offensive, where weeks of airstrikes and ground operations left entire neighborhoods in ruins.

Kirby, the White House spokesman, acknowledged that Israel had taken some “precursory steps” toward scaling back the offensive. But he said there was more to do.

“We’re not saying let your foot up off the gas completely and don’t keep going after Hamas,” he said. “It’s just that we believe the time is coming here very, very soon for a transition to this lower intensity phase.”

FEARS OF A SECOND FRONT

The deadly Hezbollah missile strike in northern Israel renewed concerns about a second front erupting into full-blown war.

It came shortly after the Israeli army said it killed three Lebanese militants who tried to infiltrate Israel.

Late Sunday, the Israeli military said it had struck Lebanon in response to the missile strike. Israeli officials said a woman in her 70s and her son, in his 40s, were killed in the town of Yuval.

The army’s chief spokesman, Daniel Hagari, said Israel would not tolerate attacks on civilians.

“The price will be extracted not just tonight, but also in the future,” he said.

Yuval is one of more than 40 towns along Israel’s northern border evacuated by the government in October. Israeli media reported that the family stayed in the area because they work in agriculture.

Tensions have also spread to the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where Palestinian health officials say nearly 350 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in confrontations throughout the war.

On Sunday, the Israeli army said troops opened fire after a Palestinian car breached a military roadblock in the southern West Bank and an attacker fired at soldiers. Palestinian health officials said two Palestinians were killed.

Late Sunday, Palestinian health officials said two teenage boys were killed by Israeli fire. The army said it shot them after they threw a bomb at an army base.

ISRAEL STRIKES CENTRAL, SOUTHERN GAZA

Israel has launched major operations against the southern city of Khan Younis and built-up refugee camps in central Gaza.

“No one is able to move,” said Rami Abu Matouq, who lives in the Maghazi camp. “Warplanes, snipers and gunfire are everywhere.”

In the central town of Deir al-Balah, health officials said at least 15 people were killed in Israeli strikes late Saturday.

At the entrance of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, men lined up to pray for the dead, their bodies wrapped in white shrouds. The bodies were put on the back of a pickup truck before they were taken to be buried.

Meanwhile, the Egyptian TV station Al-Ghad said a cameraman was killed in an Israeli airstrike in northern Gaza. The channel said Yazan al-Zwaidi was apparently in a crowd of people at the time. Details were not immediately available, and the Israeli military had no comment.

The internet advocacy group Netblocks said communications in Gaza were still out after a 48-hour outage. The Palestinian telecommunications operator in Gaza, Jawwal, said two of its employees were killed Saturday when they were hit by a shell while fixing lines in Khan Younis.

The Gaza Health Ministry said Sunday that hospitals had received 125 bodies in the last 24 hours, bringing the overall death toll to 23,968. The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants but says around two-thirds of the dead are women and minors. It says over 60,000 people have been wounded.

Israel says Hamas is responsible for the high civilian casualties, saying its fighters make use of civilian buildings and launch attacks from densely populated urban areas. The military says 189 soldiers have been killed and 1,099 wounded since the start of the ground offensive.

AP

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Reparation bonds could unlock $300 billion for Ukraine

Ukraine needs cash to keep defending itself against Russian aggression. The United States and European Union are struggling to keep writing cheques to the country. They’re also reluctant to hand over $300 billion of Russian central bank reserves, which Western governments froze at the start of the war.

Here is a proposal for a fallback plan. Kyiv could raise money by selling bonds backed by future claims for war damages against Moscow.

It would be better if Ukraine’s backers just gave it more cash, as the United Kingdom did last week. But elsewhere fatigue is setting in. U.S. President Joe Biden has so far failed to persuade Congress to approve a new $61 billion package for Kyiv. Meanwhile, Hungary blocked the EU’s planned 50 billion euros in aid last month, although other member states are determined to find a way round the problem.

Efforts to seize Russia’s frozen assets are also making slow progress. Not only are lawyers arguing whether confiscation would be legal. Politicians wonder whether it would be wise, though they are actively exploring doing so, according to the Financial Times.

Issuing “reparation bonds” would circumvent these problems. Ukraine would sell securities which pay out if - and only if - it receives reparations from Russia for the damage done by the war. Interest payments could also roll up and only become payable if Kyiv gets compensation.

The bondholders would not have a contractual claim on the Kremlin’s frozen reserves. But given that Russia is unlikely to pay up willingly, these assets would be the most likely source of cash to pay for damages.

Since the reserves are accruing interest, they could be used to pay both the bonds’ principal and coupons. This would be different from confiscation, because the assets would only be transferred if a legitimate compensation mechanism first ruled that damages were due to Ukraine.

Ukraine would have a plausible way to collect on any damages awarded up to the value of the reserves. It could therefore issue reparation bonds up to $300 billion. But it would only get anything like this sum if the United States, EU governments and other allies were willing to buy the securities.

A LONG AND WINDY ROAD

Kyiv has a compelling case for damages of well over $300 billion against Moscow. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is illegal and has caused havoc. The cost of rebuilding the country had reached $411 billion by last February, according to a World Bank tally. It will keep rising.

The legal principle that a country should “make full reparation for the injury caused by [an] internationally wrongful act” is well established. There is also a recent precedent of a state doing so. After Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, the United Nations Security Council set up a compensation commission which forced Baghdad to pay $52 billion in damages. The money came from siphoning off a portion of Iraq’s oil revenues.

The international community will find it harder to impose its will on Russia. After all, the UN Security Council won’t vote to set up a compensation commission as Russia is one of five countries that can veto its resolutions. That said, the UN’s General Assembly - which has less power than the Security Council but where no state has a veto - has already said that an international reparation mechanism is needed. It has also called on members to set up a register of claims against Russia.

In response, the Council of Europe, an intergovernmental group committed to promoting the rule of law, is setting up a register. There has so far been no decision on which body should adjudicate on claims. But the UN General Assembly’s support gives legitimacy to actions to hold Russia accountable for its war damages.

The process of extracting reparations from Russia will nonetheless be tortuous. Iraq only made its final compensation payment in 2022, over 30 years after it invaded Kuwait. Ukraine needs money now. Reparation bonds could solve this timing problem.

CUTTING THE DISCOUNT

One objection to the idea is that the bonds would be so risky that investors would demand a deep discount. So Kyiv wouldn't get anything like the full $300 billion. After all, even if a judicial process awards Ukraine damages, Western governments may be reluctant to transfer the title of Russia’s reserves to Kyiv. Ukraine itself might also agree to abandon reparation claims against Moscow as part of some future peace deal.

This is why the ideal anchor investors would be Western governments. They have a lot to lose if Ukraine fails to hold off Russia’s assault. They are also well placed to mitigate the bonds’ risks. The United States and its allies have the power to determine whether Russia’s frozen assets are used for compensation. They will also have a big say on the shape of any peace deal. If Western governments conclude that the Kremlin should get its reserves back, that will be because they conclude the wider gains of peace dwarf the costs of giving up $300 billion.

Meanwhile, the legal basis for using Russia’s reserves to pay off the reparation bonds would be strong if Ukraine assigned claims for damages against Moscow to the Western governments which bought the bonds, says Lee Buchheit, a veteran legal expert in sovereign debt. The governments could rely on the common law principle of “set-off”, under which an entity’s assets can be used to pay its debts.

If Western governments weren’t willing to buy all the reparation bonds, Ukraine could divide the bonds into several tranches, suggests Daleep Singh, chief global economist at PGIM Fixed Income. Governments could buy the riskiest tranches, leaving regular investors to buy the least risky ones. That would reduce the discount Ukraine would have to take on selling the bonds.

Reparation bonds aren’t the only innovative idea about how to get Kyiv cash now. But they don’t rely on confiscating Moscow’s assets, which is the basis of many other proposals. If Ukraine’s allies can’t write more mega cheques, the bonds could be a good fallback plan.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Russian diplomat calls on West to stop supplying arms to Kiev if it wants talks

If the West wants talks on Ukraine it should stop supplying Kiev with weapons, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said, commenting on Swiss Federal Councillor for Foreign Affairs Ignazio Cassis’ statement that Russia should be included into peace discussions.

Addressing a news conference in Davos earlier in the day, Cassis said that efforts are being made to bring Russia into peace discussions on Ukraine mediated by other countries and stressed that a peace conference could not be held without Russia’s participation.

"If it is about some countries’ desire to find a way out of the dead end they have been brought into by Washington, this is one thing. In this case, they should stop supplying weapons to Ukraine, stop imposing anti-Russian sanctions, and stop making Russophobic statements," she told the Izvestia newspaper.

"If this rhetoric is geared toward drawing Russia into some sort of a psychedelic process on the West’s terms to influence Russia’s principled approaches, we won’t be lured into this trap," she stressed.

Reuters/Tass

The three-person panel whom Monica Dongban-Mensem sent to Plateau State could not have wrought that amount of destruction without her active consent, if not instruction. It is simply inconceivable that a Justice of Appeal Court, like Okon Abang – sworn in only in October 2023 – could have gone to the home state of the President of the Court to confidently wreak so much political damage without her explicit instruction. Last Friday, the Supreme Court ruled that the Court of Appeal in Plateau was rogue, procured and perverse. It set aside the reasoning of the Court which denied the people their chosen representatives. But because the Court of Appeal is the final court in these matters, the decision of the Supreme Court is no remedy for the political ruin procured under the baleful influence of Monica Dongban-Mensem._

Nearly one year after the country began voting in February last year, Nigeria’s Supreme Court is still casting the final votes in the 2023 elections. It has been a long, tortured and traumatic election season. First the people voted. Then the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) decided what it announced as the results. By March last year, those two phases were done.

Since then, judges have been casting their own votes and the courts have been busy announcing their own results. Last Friday, the Supreme Court affirmed seven governors as duly elected. In the cases concerning Kano, Plateau, and Zamfara States, the court overturned the Court of Appeal which had sacked the governors. These governors ultimately survived because there was another instance after the Court of Appeal to which they could take their grievance. Many legislators, whose own cases must end at the Court of Appeal, were not so lucky.

Kano, Plateau, and Zamfara are three highly flammable theatres. The final verdicts in these cases saved the country a lot of needless bloodletting.

Plateau State has been the site of resilient atrocities for over three decades, since 1994. A vast number of inquiry reports into various massacres and atrocities in the state over this period attest to this.

For the past decade, Zamfara has competed with Borno State for the prize of the most prolific killing field in Nigeria.

Kano, the site of many eruptions since 1953, is the most densely populated state in Northern Nigeria and arguably also the country’s most politically volatile state.

It was not in dispute who got the highest votes in these states in the 2023 elections. But, following the vote by the people in March last year, the Court of Appeal under the direction of Judge President, Monica Dongban-Mensem, decided to alter the outcomes in these cauldrons with casual malevolence.

In Zamfara State, they purported to unseat the Governor but did him the favour of ordering a rerun in three Local Government Areas, which they voided. The court’s perverse reason for this was that “it was wrong for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to adopt results from the IReV, because IReV is not part of the collation system, but for viewing purposes.”

In Kano, the Court of Appeal issued a judgment in favour of both parties in the contest for the governorship of the state, claiming in one length to uphold the decision of the election petition tribunal invalidating the election of the incumbent on the slate of an opposition party, while in another breadth nullifying the same decision. In a reasoning that had the effect of overruling the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal implausibly held that the Governor was not a member of the party that sponsored him in the Kano governorship election.

Plateau was the state where the Court of Appeal was most willful. It is also the state of origin of Judge President Monica Dongban-Mensem. Two days before her 63rd birthday, on 11 June 2020, Mrs. Dongbam-Mensem became the seventh President of the Court of Appeal. At the time, the governor of the State was Simon Bako Lalong, a lawyer who, like Mrs. Dongbam-Mensem, hails from Shendam in the Central Senatorial Zone of the Plateau State.

The following year, Lalong appointed Monica’s daughter, Buetnaan Mandy Dongban Bassi, a judge of the High Court of Plateau State. Her mother sat on the National Judicial Council (NJC) which approved her appointment. Two years later, in September 2023, the same NJC sent Buetnaan’s husband and Monica’s son-in-law, Paul, to the Court of Appeal.

In his previous life as Speaker of the Plateau State House of Assembly, Lalong used to be a member of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) when belonging to that party was fashionable. With impressive timing, however, he flipped to the All Progressives Congress (APC), becoming state governor on its platform in 2015. In the 2023 election, he was the Director-General of the presidential campaign of the ruling APC.

In that election also, Lalong, who was born nearly six years after Mrs. Dongbam-Mensem in May 1963, ran on the platform of the APC to represent the people of Plateau Central in the Senate. If he had won, Mrs. Dongban-Mensem would have been his constituent and confidant. They come from the same neighbourhood. In the event, he lost to Napoleon Bali of the PDP.

Lalong thereafter challenged his loss before the election petition tribunal. For parliamentary elections, all disputes end at the Court of Appeal. The Court sits in panels of three Justices designated by the President of the Court.

In Plateau State, all appeals went to a panel presided over by Oluwayemisi Williams-Dawodu who has been a Justice of Appeal Court since March 2014. She was joined by Abdulaziz Waziri, who was appointed to the court in 2021; and Okon Abang whose term on the court began only in October 2023.

On 7 November, this Court of Appeal panel nullified the election of Bali, claiming that “the PDP and its Senatorial candidate have no legal ground to participate in the election having failed to obey the judgment of a Plateau High Court that the party should conduct lawful elections for the purpose of having officers for Wards, Local Governments and State Council.” In his place, the court returned Simon Lalong as the winner of the election in which he had been roundly defeated.

Lalong was one beneficiary among many from a judicial hit-list methodically compiled by the Court of Appeal in Monica Dongban-Mensem’s home state. By the time its demolition job was over, the Court had sacked two PDP Senators from the state and five members of the House of Representatives elected on the PDP ticket.

In the 25-member state House of Assembly, the Court of Appeal removed 16 members elected on the platform of the PDP, handing their seats and control of the state parliament – with malice aforethought – to the APC.

Their victims included: Timothy Datong (Riyom); Rimyat Nanbol (Langtang); Moses Sule (Mikang); Salome Waklek (Pankshin); Bala Fwangje (Mangu South); Maren Ishaku (Bokkos); Dagogot (Quaanpan North); Nannim Langyi (Langtang North); Nimchak Rims (Langtang South); Danjuma Azi (Jos North-West); Gwottson Fom (Jos South); Abubakar Sani Idris (Mangu North); Happiness Akawu (Pengana); Ibrahim Abalak (Rukuba/Irigwe); Philip Jwe (Barkin Ladi); and Cornelius Deyok (Qua’apan South).

In all these cases, the Court claimed that the PDP should not have fielded candidates. Their reasoning overruled a long line of Supreme Court decisions. This was not a mistake; it was judicial malpractice on a very corrupt scale. At the minimum, the panel should have been called to order when they issued the first decision. But the Judge President who sent them there was getting what she wanted.

Instead, inebriated with hubris from the corrupt demolition job they accomplished in Jos, one of the members of the panel, Abdulaziz Waziri, traveled to Yola in Adamawa State last December to celebrate the mandates they had laid to waste, claiming that the PDP “had no structures on the ground at the point they were presenting their candidates.” He alone could explain what he meant.

This was a judicial hatchet job. Any claim that the President of the Court of Appeal was not herself a member of the Panel is laughable.

Such is the state of the judiciary in Nigeria at this time that the three-person panel whom Monica Dongban-Mensem sent to Plateau State could not have wrought that amount of destruction without her active consent, if not instruction. It is simply inconceivable that a Justice of Appeal Court, like Okon Abang – sworn in only in October 2023 – could have gone to the home state of the President of the Court to confidently wreak so much political damage without her explicit instruction.

Last Friday, the Supreme Court ruled that the Court of Appeal in Plateau was rogue, procured and perverse. It set aside the reasoning of the Court which denied the people their chosen representatives. But because the Court of Appeal is the final court in these matters, the decision of the Supreme Court is no remedy for the political ruin procured under the baleful influence of Dongban-Mensem.

The ruin caused and supervised by this President of the Court of Appeal is incalculable.

The legislators whose mandates she has stolen are entitled to feel done over.

The people of the Plateau whose will she has ruined are entitled to feel cheated.

She and her cohort of carefully selected judicial mobsters have brought the judiciary into irreparable disrepute.

Even now, those three Justices on the Plateau Court of Appeal panel should still be brought to account.

While we await that, the only thing left to say to Mrs. Dongbam-Mensem is: in God’s name, please go!

Build My Burgers founder Aly Lalani always knew that a typical desk job wasn't for him. He wanted something more challenging and unpredictable.

The 38-year-old has worked in the restaurant industry for the last 16 years, spending most of that time employed by other people — until 2021, when he opened Build My Burgers in Orlando, Florida. The burger joint uses an open design concept to entice customers — roughly 400 per day, Lalani says — who watch their meals being made up close, a more personal experience than a typical fast food chain.

That first year, Build My Burgers brought in $584,000 in revenue, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It. Last year, that number increased to $739,000, enabling Lalani to pay himself an $84,000 salary.

Very little went according to plan along the way. Between Lalani's first inklings of his big idea in 2018 and the restaurant's launch, he lost his father, penny-pinched during the Covid-19 pandemic, prepared for a new baby and pushed the big opening from April 2020 to January 2021.

Here's how Lalani launched his restaurant, and what's driving its success so far, he says.

'We are big foodies'

When you ask the Pakistan-born entrepreneur why he chose to open a burger restaurant, his answer is pretty simple. "We love burgers," he says. "My wife and I, we are big foodies."

Initially, Lalani wanted to become a franchisee, owning and running an outpost of an extant restaurant chain. Building a brand from scratch would be too time-consuming — but there was a problem.

"The franchises we were looking into that had a name, they were not affordable," he says. He and his wife Zahra got "very close" to signing a deal with a particular burger chain, but it didn't work out, so "we just decided that we're going to go ahead and open our own brand and bring it to life in Orlando."

Aly and Zahra Lalani at the Build My Burgers restaurant in Orlando, Florida.

Andrea Desky

In 2018, the two got to work. They designed the restaurant's logo and interior — from the wall art to the orange and black color scheme — to give off the appearance that it was already a successful chain, Lalani says.

Lalani signed the lease for his storefront in 2019, and construction started immediately, he says. He was on track to open its doors the following year.

Living off a single salary

When Covid hit, Lalani and his family made a tough decision: All three of them — including their new baby — would live off the salary from Zahra's 9-to-5 job. Lalani kept working on the restaurant full-time, despite not knowing when it could open.

"I was just staying at home, living off my wife's paycheck and just trying to pay all the bills that we could to stay afloat," he says.

The challenge intensified when his startup budget of $200,000 doubled to $400,000, with areas like air conditioning, grease traps and impact fees costing more than he'd expected. Lalani used $60,000 in personal savings, got $122,000 in investment funds from his landlord and took on $218,000 in credit card debt and unsecured loans.

Only $60,000 of that credit card debt remains, he says.

All the while, Lalani grieved his father, who died in December 2019. As the responsibilities piled up, he used memories of his father and his own excitement of becoming a dad to keep himself going.

"[It] pushed me to do more," he says, adding: "It was really difficult. But, one thing about me is I'm very motivated. I'm very positive. I had a vision. I had a goal. I wanted to do everything it takes to make sure it comes to life."

Growing into the local community

Build My Burgers never had a grand opening. Lalani simply turned on the "open" sign in the front window.

The restaurant features special deals for its local community, from free and discounted meals for college students or police officers to free drinks for delivery drivers. "We want to make sure that we're taking care of the people that are taking care of us," Lalani says, noting that it helps build a loyal customer base.

Aly Lalani serving an order at Build My Burgers.

Andrea Desky

In 2022, Zahra became a co-owner and joined Build My Burgers part-time, handling the restaurant's marketing and accounting. Lalani still works 50 hours per week on tasks like restaurant operations and social media, he says.

He's also still thinking about restaurant franchises — specifically, turning Build My Burgers into one. His goals are ambitious. First: He's set a minimum investment price of $235,000, he says, roughly his original budget for trying to buy into someone else's franchise.

Second: He wants to expand to 51 franchise locations across the U.S. in the next five years, and hire enough quality staff for each location to keep Build My Burgers from overextending itself.

"It just amazes me how food makes people so happy," says Lalani. "And it feels great because it all started as a dream."

CNBC