A popular TikTok influencer in Mali who used her platform to praise the country’s military was abducted and publicly executed by armed men, authorities said, marking one of the most shocking attacks yet against pro-government voices in the region.
Mariame Cissé, who had more than 140,000 followers on TikTok, was seized Friday while visiting a weekly market in the town of Echel, according to Yehia Tandina, the mayor of nearby Timbuktu. He said that the following evening, at dusk, the same men returned with Cissé to Independence Square in Tonka — where they shot her in front of a crowd.
The mayor of Tonka confirmed the execution but said details about the assailants remained unclear. The town sits along the Niger River in central Mali, an area where al-Qaeda’s regional affiliate, Jama’at Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM), is known to operate. No group has claimed responsibility for the killing.
Cissé was not affiliated with the military but often posted videos of herself wearing fatigues and expressing support for Mali’s armed forces. Local officials said that those videos likely drew the attention of militants in the area.
She reportedly received death threats in the days before her abduction. In her final TikTok video, shared just days before her death, Cissé danced and smiled to upbeat music — a post that has since filled with messages of grief and outrage as her followers continue to grow.
Mali’s military government, which seized power in a 2020 coup and again in 2021 under a separate takeover, has faced intensifying violence from insurgent groups across the country. Despite promises to restore security, attacks by JNIM and other armed factions have surged, particularly in remote rural regions.
The nation is currently in the grip of a two-month fuel blockade imposed by al-Qaeda-linked groups, worsening economic hardship and limiting government control in several provinces.
Cissé’s killing underscores the growing peril faced by public figures who support Mali’s junta amid the country’s worsening conflict.
