A young Malian TikToker, Mariam Cissé, was kidnapped on Thursday and publicly murdered the next day in the northern Malian town of Tonka, by jihadists who accused her of providing information to the army. Local, family and security sources reported this.
The 19-year-old girl is followed by more than 90 thousand people on TikTok because of her videos depicting daily life in the Timbuktu region. According to her sister, Mariam was taken by the militia to a field and shot in front of the townspeople.
The killing sparked outrage across the country, which is ruled by a military junta and has been embroiled in years of conflict against jihadist groups affiliated with Al-Qaeda and Islamic State. In recent weeks the Jnim militia has imposed a blockade on fuel supplies, further exacerbating the economic and humanitarian crisis plaguing Mali.
