“The young TikTok user Mariame Cisse 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 said.
The mayor of Tonka in the Timbuktu region, Mamadou Konipo, confirmed the execution took place but said he didn’t have more information.
Tonka is a village situated along the Niger River, approximately 150 kilometers from the city of Timbuktu. Members of the al-Qaida affiliate Jama’at Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin, or JNIM, are known to operate there.
However, no group has claimed responsibility for the killing.
Cisse was not a member of the military but sometimes posted images of herself in military fatigues to her more than 140,00 followers. These videos are thought to have drawn attention from the armed men.
According to the Timbuktu mayor, the influencer also received death threats several days before she was abducted.
2025.11.10 Malian TikToker killed by suspected jihadists after pro-army posts
A female TikToker accused of helping Mali’s army has been seized and killed execution-style by suspected jihadists.
Mariam Cissé, said to be in her 20s and with over 100,000 TikTok followers, posted videos about life in her Tonka hometown in the northern Timbuktu region and often expressed support for the army.
Her death has shocked the nation, which has been battling a jihadist insurgency since 2012. State TV said she had simply wanted to promote her community and support the army through her TikTok posts.
Mali is grappling with a fuel blockade imposed on the capital by jihadist groups that has severely disrupted daily life, with the African Union expressing “deep concern”.
Ms Cissé was seized by the suspected jihadists while live-streaming from a market in a neighbouring town, French public radio RFI reported.
“My sister was arrested on Thursday by the jihadists,” her brother told the AFP news agency, saying they had accused her of “informing the Malian army of their movements”.
Over the weekend she was moved to Tonka by motorbike and shot at the town’s Independence Square while her brother was in the crowd, AFP reports.
A security source told the agency she had been assassinated because she had been accused of filming jihadists “for the Malian army”.
In some of her TikTok videos, she wears military uniform, with one of her posts captioned Vive Mali (Long Live Mali).
Her death comes as the crisis caused by the jihadist blockade has worsened, with schools and universities remaining shut for weeks.
The government has suspended learning institutions since last month and said that it would do “everything possible to address the crisis” so that they would reopen on Monday.
The dire situation has persisted, and on Friday the French foreign ministry advised its citizens to urgently leave the country while commercial flights were available.
On Sunday, AU Commission chairperson Mahmoud Ali Youssouf said he was concerned 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”.
He condemned the “deliberate attacks against innocent civilians” that had caused “unacceptable loss of lives and heightened instability”.
He added that the AU was ready “to support Mali, as well as all Sahel countries, during this particularly challenging period”.
For weeks, Mali has been hit by fuel shortages, especially in the capital Bamako, after militants from an al-Qaeda affiliate imposed a blockade by attacking tankers on major highways.
Mali is landlocked, so all fuel supplies are brought in by road from neighbouring states such as Senegal and Ivory Coast.
The military seized power in Mali in 2021 and promised to improve security, but the jihadist insurgency has continued and large parts of the north and east of the country remain outside government control.
2025.8.15 Suspected French spy arrested in alleged Mali coup plot
Mali’s military rulers say they have arrested a French national on suspicion of spying for his country in an attempt to destabilise the African nation.
In a statement read on national television late on Thursday, the junta alleged that Yann Vezilier was working “on behalf of the French intelligence service”. Mr Vezilier is yet to comment on the accusation.
His picture was also broadcast, alongside those of a number of army generals arrested recently for allegedly planning to overthrow the military government.
“The conspiracy has been foiled with the arrests of those involved,” Mali’s Security Minister Gen Daoud Aly Mohammedine said in the televised address.
France, Mali’s former colonial ruler, is also yet to comment on the man’s arrest and allegations of destabilisation.
The West African nation has been gripped by a security crisis fuelled by an Islamist insurgency since 2012 – one of the reasons given for the military takeover but attacks by jihadist groups have continued and even increased.
Following days of speculation about the alleged coup plot, Gen Mohammedine confirmed that “fringe elements of the Malian armed security forces” had been detained for seeking to “destabilise the institutions of the republic”.
“These soldiers and civilians” were said to have obtained “the help of foreign states”, the minister said.
The French national acted “on behalf of the French intelligence service, which mobilised political leaders, civil society actors and military personnel” in Mali, the minister added.
He also confirmed the arrest of two army generals, including Gen Abass Dembele, the former governor of the Mopti region, who was recently dismissed from his position.
At least 55 soldiers have been arrested so far in connection with the alleged attempted coup, security sources told AFP.
Gen Mohammedine said a full investigation was under way to identify “possible accomplices” and that “the situation is completely under control”.
Political tension has been rising in recent weeks, which have seen the arrest of former Prime Ministers Moussa Mara and Choguel Maïga over accusations of harming the reputation of the state and embezzlement.
Mara, a recent outspoken critic of the military government, has been in detention since 1 August, while Maïga is facing judicial sanctions.
In May, the junta dissolved all political parties following rare anti-government protests, which Mara described as a severe blow to reconciliation efforts initiated by the military leaders last year.
Junta leader Gen Asimi Goïta, who seized power in both 2020 and 2021, had promised elections last year, but these have never been held.
In July, the transition period was extended by five years, clearing him to continue leading the country until at least 2030.
Alongside its neighbours Niger and Burkina Faso, it has enlisted the help of Russian allies to contain the jihadist attacks in the region after breaking ties with France – but there has been no significant improvements in security.
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