Featured Image Credit: Mariam Cissé/TikTok
Topics: Crime, News, TikTok, World News, Terrorism
Kit Roberts
Topics: Crime, News, TikTok, World News, Terrorism
A TikToker in Mali has been kidnapped and brutally murdered by an extremist group operating in the region.
Mariam Cissé, believed to have been in her 20s, would post on social media about her life in Tonka in the Timbuktu region, and had around 100,000 followers on her TikTok account.
On her account, Mariam had often expressed support for the army.
Mali is governed by a military junta and has been fighting a jihadist insurgency since 2012.
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The landlocked African country is forced to import fuel from neighbouring regions, however, the jihadi groups have been staging a blockade of fuel imports putting increased strain on the embattled country, with the African Union (AU) expressing a 'deep concern' about the situation.
Mariam had sometimes donned military uniform in her videos, with one video on her profile being captioned 'vive Mali', or 'long live Mali'.
Speaking to the AFP news agency, Mariam's brother said: "My sister was arrested on Thursday by the jihadists."
He added that the group had accused his sister of "informing the Malian army of their movements".
A security source appeared to corroborate this claim, saying that Mariam was killed as she had been accused of filming jihadist 'for the Malian army'.
After being abducted on Thursday Mariam was moved to Tonka over the weekend by motorbike.
There, she was shot dead in the town's Independence Square.
Her brother was in the crowd when she she killed.
Mariam's killing has shocked Mali, and the worsening security situation in the country has been a cause for concern at the AU.
AU chairperson Mahmoud Ali Youssouf said on Sunday that he is worried 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'.
Mr Yousseff also condemned 'deliberate attacks against innocent civilians', saying that this has caused 'unacceptable loss of lives and heightened instability'.
The chairperson also said that the AU is prepared 'to support Mali, as well as all Sahel countries, during this particularly challenging period'.
Mali has been governed by a military junta which took power in 2021 on a promise to improve the security of the nation.
However, jihadist campaigns in the country have continued since then, with a number of groups continuing to blockade fuel imports and to target civilians.
In particular, large swathes of the east and north of Mali are outside of government control.