Armed men in Mali publicly execute TikTok influencer

Armed men in Mali have abducted and publicly executed a TikTok influencer who posted videos in support of the West African nation's military, local authorities have said.

Mariame Cissé was taken on Friday while at a weekly market in Echel, according to Yehia Tandina, the mayor of neighbouring Timbuktu. He described how the following day at dusk the same men brought her back to Independence Square in Tonka and executed her in front of a crowd.

The mayor of Tonka, where the execution took place, confirmed the killing but said he did not have more information. The village sits on the Niger River, roughly in the centre of the country.

Members of the al Qaeda 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 followers, which is thought to have drawn attention from the armed men. She received death threats several days before she was abducted, according to the Timbuktu mayor.

In her last TikTok, uploaded a few days before her murder, Cissé can be seen joyfully dancing along to a song while smiling and laughing. The video has received hundreds of comments mourning her death and the TikToker continues to gain thousands of followers as news of her murder spreads.

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.

???? Tap here to follow The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim wherever you get your podcasts ???? 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 two-month long fuel blockade that has been imposed by al Qaeda affiliated groups..