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 93 miles from Timbuktu. Members of the al Qaeda affiliate Jama’at Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin, or JNIM, are known to operate there. JNIM, which was formed in Mali in 2017, has become one of Africa’s deadliest jihadist groups within the space of just a few years, according to BBC News.
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 150,000 followers, which is thought to have drawn attention from the armed men.
Cissé received death threats several days before she was abducted, according to the Timbuktu mayor.
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 military 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.
Social media influencers have been targeted by violence around the world in recent months.
In August, social media influencer Ariela Mejia-Polanco was shot dead while driving alone in her car in Mount Vernon, New York.
In June, Venezuelan TikTok influencer Jesus Sarmiento was killed during a livestream after denouncing members of the Tren de Aragua criminal gang and allegedly corrupt police officers.
Also in June, Pakistani police said 17-year-old TikTok star Sana Yousaf was shot dead by a man who had repeatedly contacted her online.
In May, social media influencer Valeria Márquez was shot dead during a livestream on TikTok in Mexico. The murder shocked Mexico — where killings and kidnappings are a daily occurrence — and brought into sharp focus both its femicide epidemic and growing violence against influencers.
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