Mali TikTok influencer killed after posts supporting military

Armed men in Mali killed a TikTok influencer who had posted videos in support of the West African nation's military, authorities said Monday.

“The young TikTok user Mariame Cissé was abducted by armed men on Friday while she was at the weekly market in Echel ... The following day, at dusk, the same men brought her back to Independence Square in Tonka and executed her in front of a crowd,” Yehia Tandina, the mayor of Timbuktu, told The Associated Press.

The mayor of Tonka in the Timbuktu region, Mamadou Konipo, confirmed the killing but said he didn't have more information.

Tonka is a village along the Niger River, roughly 150 kilometers (93 miles) from Timbuktu. Members of the al-Qaida affiliate Jama’at Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin, or JNIM, are known to operate there.

No group has taken responsibility for the killing.

Cissé, who was not a member of the military, sometimes posted images of herself in military fatigues to her more than 140,00 followers, which is thought to have drawn attention from the armed men.

According to the Timbuktu mayor, Cissé received death threats several days before she was abducted.

Mali has been battling armed groups since 2012, a fight that has escalated over the past decade. The military seized power in 2020 on the pretext of curtailing the insecurity. Another officer seized power in a coup the following year. Insecurity has worsened since then, according to monitoring groups.

Armed groups, primarily JNIM, operate in large swathes of rural regions. The landlocked nation is currently under a fuel blockade by JNIM.