Jihadists in Mali have kidnapped and executed a female TikTok star in a town square after accusing her of filming them and collaborating with the army.
Mariam Cisse posted videos about the city of Tonka in the northern Timbuktu region and had 90,000 followers, but her abductors accused her of working with the military.
News of her death has shocked the country, which is ruled by a military junta that is struggling to contain the jihadist insurgency that has gripped the country since 2012.
‘My sister was arrested Thursday by the jihadists,’ her brother said, claiming they had accused her of ‘informing the Malian army of their movements’.
Mariam, known for publicly supporting the army by wearing their uniforms in her videos, was reportedly taken from a local fair by several armed men.
The following day, they took her on a motorbike to Tonka, where she was shot in Independence Square, he said, adding that ‘I was in the crowd.’
A security source said: ‘Mariam Cisse has been assassinated in a public square in Tonka by jihadists who accused her of having filmed them for the Malian army.’
The source, speaking on condition of anonymity, called it a ‘barbaric’ act.
A local official also confirmed the execution, denouncing it as an ‘ignoble act’.
Mariam Cisse (pictured) posted videos about the city of Tonka in the northern Timbuktu region and had 90,000 followers, but her abductors accused her of working with the military
The military junta is struggling to contain the long-running jihadist insurgency.
In recent weeks, fighters from JNIM, the Al-Qaeda-linked Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims, have imposed a fuel blockade that has forced the government to close schools and prevented harvesting in several regions.
It has forced the government to close schools, prevented harvesting in several regions and limited access to electricity.
Last week, President Assimi Goita called on citizens to do their part, particularly by reducing unnecessary travel, while promising to ‘do everything possible to deliver fuel’.
For Alioune Tine, formerly the UN’s independent expert on the human rights situation in Mali, the leader’s statement was a ‘terrible admission of failure’.
The ruling military junta, which seized power in back-to-back coups in 2020 and 2021, had promised to stem the jihadist expansion that has plagued the country for more than a decade.
It broke ties with former western military allies, including France, partnering instead with Russian paramilitaries to fight the jihadists.
But ‘the Malian state no longer controls anything’ within its territory, Bakary Sambe from the Dakar-based Timbuktu Institute think tank said. Instead, he said, it ‘is concentrating its forces around Bamako to secure the regime’.
And the population’s initial support for the junta ‘is beginning to erode in the face of the military regime’s inability to keep its security promise’, he added.
Faced with the deteriorating situation, the United States and United Kingdom announced they were withdrawning non-essential personnel from Mali at the end of October.
Several other embassies, including most recently France on Friday, have asked their citizens to leave the country.
