Armed individuals in Mali have been reported to have fatally assaulted a TikTok influencer who had been sharing content in support of the country’s military, officials disclosed on Monday.
Mariame Cissé was taken from a weekly market in Echel on Friday and later brought back to Independence Square in Tonka where she was executed in front of a crowd, as stated by Yehia Tandina, the mayor of Timbuktu.
The mayor of Tonka in the Timbuktu region, Mamadou Konipo, confirmed the incident but mentioned a lack of further details.
Tonka, situated approximately 150 kilometers from Timbuktu along the Niger River, is an area where members of the al-Qaeda affiliate Jama’at Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM) are known to be active.
No specific group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Despite not being affiliated with the military, Cissé occasionally shared images of herself in military attire with her more than 140,000 followers, which potentially attracted the attention of the assailants.
According to Tandina, Cissé had received threats of harm several days prior to her abduction.
The account was corroborated by two local sources who chose to remain anonymous due to safety concerns, as conveyed to Reuters. Although neither witnessed the execution firsthand, one source relayed information obtained from someone present at the scene, while the other heard details from Cissé’s family.
In one of her TikTok videos, Cissé appeared in military gear with the caption “Vive Mali,” expressing her support for the nation.
Mali has been engaged in combat against armed factions since 2012, with the situation intensifying over the past decade. The military took control in 2020 citing the need to address security challenges, followed by another coup the subsequent year. The security situation has since deteriorated, according to various monitoring organizations.
Armed groups, particularly JNIM, operate extensively in rural areas of the landlocked nation. Presently, Mali is facing a fuel blockade imposed by JNIM.
