AP
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A TikTok influencer accused of posting videos supporting Mali’s army has been killed by suspected jihadists, according to authorities in the West African nation.
“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.
It comes as a well-armed jihadist group affiliated with al Qaeda is closing in on Bamako, the capital. The country’s military junta and their Russian partners are struggling to counter the jihadis, who now hold sway in many parts of the huge Sahelian country.
The mayor of Tonka in the Timbuktu region, Mamadou Konipo, confirmed Cissé’s killing but didn’t have any more information.
Tonka is a village along the Niger River, about 90 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 TikTok 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.
As the situation in Mali deteriorates, the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany and France among others have urged their nationals to leave Bamako.
