Benin bets on free vets and schools to turn people away from jihadism

People go about their business at the busiest market junction in Bohicon, Benin, on September 8, 2012. [Courtesy]

In jihadist-threatened north Benin, the army is waging a campaign away from the front -- a programme of social projects, including free veterinary care, to tempt locals away from extremism.

Located just south of Niger and Burkina Faso -- which together with neighbouring Mali form the world's terrorism epicentre -- Benin's north has come under increasing pressure from Islamist extremists, many of them linked to Al-Qaeda.