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A young female TikToker accused of helping Mali’s army was kidnapped and publicly executed by suspected jihadists, her family and local officials said on Sunday.
According to a report by the BBC, Mariam Cisse frequently shared videos with her over 100,000 TikTok followers about her life in her Tonka hometown in the northern Timbuktu region and often expressed support for the army. News of her death has shocked the nation, which has been battling a jihadist insurgency since 2012.
“My sister was arrested on Thursday by the jihadists,” her brother told the AFP news agency, saying they had accused her of “informing the Malian army of their movements”.
Mariam was abducted by the suspected jihadists while live-streaming from a market in a neighbouring town. The following day, they took her on a motorbike to Tonka, where she was shot in Independence Square while her brother was in the crowd, AFP reported.
A security source told the agency, “Mariam Cisse has been assassinated in a public square in Tonka by jihadists who accused her of having filmed them for the Malian army.”
According to the BBC, the state TV said that Mariam had simply wanted to promote her community and support the army through her TikTok videos. Notably, in some of her posts, she was seen in a military uniform. She even captioned one of her videos, “Vive Mali”, meaning long live Mali.
(Also Read: Embassy working to ‘secure safe release’ of 5 Indians kidnapped in Mali amid unrest)
Unrest in Mali
Mariam’s death comes as 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 severely disrupted daily life.
On Sunday, the African Union Commission chairperson, Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, said he was concerned about the “rapid deterioration of the security situation where terrorist groups have imposed blockades, disrupted access to essential supplies, and severely worsened humanitarian conditions for civilian populations”.
He condemned the “deliberate attacks against innocent civilians” that had caused “unacceptable loss of lives and heightened instability”. He said that the AU was ready “to support Mali, as well as all Sahel countries, during this particularly challenging period”.
