A Tiktok star was kidnapped and publicly executed in front of her family by Al-Qaeda linked jihadists in Mali. Mariam Cisse was shot dead after being accused of filming the terror group Jama’at Nasr al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) and collaborating with the army.
Mariam was put to death in a public square on November 7. She used to post videos about the city of Tonka in the northern Timbuktu region to her 90,000 followers.
Her death has shocked the country as the military junta in Government grapples with a jihadist insurgency which took hold of Mali in 2012. It comes as several other countries in Africa have descended into chaos, with thousands being massacred in Sudan and killings in Nigeria.
“My sister was arrested on Thursday [November 6] by the jihadists,” Mariam’s brother said. He claimed that the JNIM had accused her of “informing the Malian army of their movements”.
Mariam is publicly known to support the army and is often seen wearing their uniform in her videos. However, her content is generally light-hearted, taking a humorous approach to living in an unstable country. She was reportedly kidnapped by several armed men while livestreaming her day at a local fair.
She was then taken on a motorbike to Tonka, where she was shot dead in Independence Square, a significant landmark in the city, her brother said, adding that he was forced to watch from the crowd.
The Daily Mail reported a security source said: “Mariam Cisse has been assassinated in a public square in Tonka by jihadists who accused her of having filmed them for the Malian army.” The anonymous source said the execution was “barbaric”.
A local official confirmed the killing and denounced it as an “ignoble act” to discourage Malians from supporting Government forces. The jihadist insurgents of the JNUM have taken their campaign to new heights recently, imposing a fuel blockade which has forced the Government to close schools and prevented harvesting in several regions.
JNIM is the most prolific jihadist group in Mali and the “most significant threat in the Sahel [the region right across Africa where the Sahara gives way to more humid savannas]”, according to the United Nations. It aims to implement Sharia and is undermining Sahelian states both in military and political spheres by appearing as a more convincing alternative.
It already rules over villages indirectly through local agreements, claiming to be defending local populations. JNIM funds itself via taxation of these villages and through kidnap ransoms and has expanded its influence over a large swathe of territory in recent months.
JNIM was paid “at least $50 million” last week for the release of two Emirati hostages and their Iranian employee, AFP reported from sources close to the negotiations.
The jihadist group “wants to overthrow the junta and install a Government with which it can negotiate, which it can force to implement its agenda”, a European security source told AFP. Its fuel blockade has been a significant step towards this aim.
Junta president Assimi Goita called on the citizens for help in the crisis, asking them to reduce unnecessary travel and promising to “do everything possible to deliver fuel”. The statement was a “terrible admission of failure”, according to Alioune Tine, formerly the UN’s independent expert on the human rights situation in Mali.
When the ruling junta seized power in coups in 2020 and 2021, they promised to end the jihadist expansion that has plagued the country since 2012. They broke ties with Western military allies, including France, and went to Russian paramilitaries for help.
But now “The Malian state no longer controls anything” in the country, Bakary Sambe from the Dakar-based Timbuktu Institute think tank said. Public support for the junta is “beginning to erode” in Mali as it concentrates its forces around the capital Bamako, Sambe added.
The UK and the US have announced that they will withdraw non-essential personnel from Mali at the end of October, in response to the deteriorating situation. Several other embassies, including France, which issued its request on Friday, have asked their citizens to leave the country.
