Armed men in Mali have abducted and publicly executed a popular TikTok influencer known for her pro-military posts, local authorities confirmed on Tuesday.
The victim, identified as Mariame Cissé, was seized by gunmen on Friday while attending a weekly market in Echel, a community near Tonka in the Timbuktu region, according to Yehia Tandina, the Mayor of Timbuktu.
“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,” Tandina said.
The Mayor of Tonka, Mamadou Konipo, confirmed the execution but said he had no additional details on the perpetrators.
Tonka, a village located along the Niger River, lies approximately 150 kilometers from Timbuktu. The area is known to host fighters from Jama’at Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM), an al-Qaida-affiliated militant group operating across the Sahel region.
No group has claimed responsibility for Cissé’s killing.
Local reports indicate that the influencer, who had more than 140,000 followers on TikTok, regularly shared videos of herself dressed in military fatigues and expressing support for Mali’s armed forces.
Authorities believe these posts may have drawn the attention of extremist groups.
Mayor Tandina also disclosed that Cissé had received death threats in the days leading up to her abduction.
The brutal killing has sparked outrage among Malian social media users and renewed concerns about growing insecurity in the country’s northern regions, where insurgent activity has intensified despite the government’s military campaigns.
