Mariam Cissé, a TikTok influencer in her early 20s, was abducted and murdered by armed men in her home city of Tonka this Friday, in a savage display of violence that shocked Mali, embroiled in a civil war between the military government and various jihadist and separatist groups.
With her nearly 100,000 followers, Mariam Cissé was a well-known voice on TikTok in Mali, where she promoted local cultural events in her home region – but also supported Mali’s military junta that took power in two coups in 2020 and 2021, and recorded herself saluting the flag while wearing an army uniform.
On Thursday, November 6, she was livestreaming her journey through the market of a riverside town west of Timbuktu, when she was abducted by armed men on camera, then driven to Tonka the next day, where she was gunned down in front of the crowd on Independence Square, the town’s main plaza, without the intervention of security forces.
Her gruesome, public death has sent shockwaves throughout Mali, whose economy has been largely paralyzed for several weeks by a fuel blockade imposed by JNIM, the Sahelian branch of Al-Qaeda, whose stated goal is to overthrow the junta. Since early September, hundreds of fuel tankers have been torched or seized by the jihadists, who have targeted the routes supplying the capital city Bamako.
Due to the worsening security situation, several Western countries like the US, UK or France have evacuated non-essential diplomatic staff and ordered their citizens in Mali to immediately leave the country in the last few days, fearing that the fuel blockade might hinder evacuation operations, and that the jihadists’ momentum might lead to the collapse of the Malian regime in the coming weeks.
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Mariam Cissé, a TikTok influencer in her early 20s, was abducted and murdered by armed men in her home city of Tonka this Friday, in a savage display of violence that shocked Mali, embroiled in a civil war between the military government and various jihadist and separatist groups.
With her nearly 100,000 followers, Mariam Cissé was a well-known voice on TikTok in Mali, where she promoted local cultural events in her home region – but also supported Mali’s military junta that took power in two coups in 2020 and 2021, and recorded herself saluting the flag while wearing an army uniform.
On Thursday, November 6, she was livestreaming her journey through the market of a riverside town west of Timbuktu, when she was abducted by armed men on camera, then driven to Tonka the next day, where she was gunned down in front of the crowd on Independence Square, the town’s main plaza, without the intervention of security forces.
Her gruesome, public death has sent shockwaves throughout Mali, whose economy has been largely paralyzed for several weeks by a fuel blockade imposed by JNIM, the Sahelian branch of Al-Qaeda, whose stated goal is to overthrow the junta. Since early September, hundreds of fuel tankers have been torched or seized by the jihadists, who have targeted the routes supplying the capital city Bamako.
Due to the worsening security situation, several Western countries like the US, UK or France have evacuated non-essential diplomatic staff and ordered their citizens in Mali to immediately leave the country in the last few days, fearing that the fuel blockade might hinder evacuation operations, and that the jihadists’ momentum might lead to the collapse of the Malian regime in the coming weeks.