Female TikTok star is kidnapped and publicly executed by al-Qaeda jihadists in Mali as yet another African nation descends into chaos

Al Qaeda-linked jihadists in Mali kidnapped and executed a female TikTok star in front of her family after accusing her of filming them and collaborating with the military.

Mariam Cisse, who posted videos about the city of Tonka in the northern Timbuktu region to her 90,000 followers, was shot dead in a public square on November 7 by suspected members of the notorious Jemaah Nasr al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) terrorist group.

News of his death shocked the country, which is ruled by a military junta that is struggling to contain the jihadist insurgency that has gripped the country since 2012. With the death and destruction seen in Mali, Nigeria and Sudan, it has now become the last country in Africa to be plunged into chaos.

‘My sister was arrested on Thursday’ [November 6] Mariam’s brother claimed that the al-Qaeda-linked organization accused him of ‘informing the Malian army of their movements’, saying “by the jihadists”.

Meryem, who is known to openly support the army by wearing a uniform in her videos, was reportedly taken out of town from a local fair by several armed men.

He was livestreaming his day at the fair when he was kidnapped.

The next day they took him on a motorcycle to Tonka, where they shot him in Independence Square, a major landmark of the city. His brother said he had to watch from the crowd.

Meryem has posted funny and lighthearted videos that largely focus on social issues and the dangers of living in an unstable country.

A security source said: ‘Mariam Cisse was killed in a square in Tonka by jihadists who accused her of filming for the Malian army.’

In recent weeks, Al Qaeda-linked Islam and Muslim Support Group JNIM fighters have implemented a fuel blockade that has forced the government to close schools and hindered harvests in many areas (file image of JNIM fighters)

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, described the incident as a “barbaric” act.

A local official also confirmed the execution, condemning it as a ‘despicable act’ and adding that terrorists carried out the attack to deter Malians from publicly supporting government forces.

The military junta is struggling to contain the long-running jihadist insurgency.

In recent weeks, fighters from the al-Qaeda-linked Islam and Muslims Support Group JNIM implemented a fuel blockade that forced the government to close schools and hindered harvests in many regions.

According to the United Nations, JNIM is the most influential jihadist group in Mali and the ‘most significant threat in the Sahel’.

It wants to implement Sharia law and is trying to delegitimize the Sahel states at both the military and political levels by positioning itself as a more credible alternative.

Claiming in its propaganda to defend local people, it indirectly rules villages through special agreements for different regions.

In recent months, JNIM has expanded its influence over a large region (by how much is not yet clear), financing itself through tax collection and kidnapping for ransom.

People line up to fill up their vehicles’ tanks at a fuel station in Bamako, Mali, on October 31, 2025, amid a major fuel blockade

Last week, JNIM secured “at least $50 million” for the release of two Emirati hostages and its Iranian employee, AFP has learned from sources close to the negotiations.

According to Sambe, the jihadists’ ‘strategic goal’ in the blockade is to ‘overthrow the regime’.

A European security source also told AFP that JNIM ‘wants to overthrow the junta and form a government with which it can negotiate and force it to implement its own agenda’.

It forced the government to close schools, hinder harvests in many regions, and restrict access to electricity.

Last week, President Assimi Goita called on citizens to do their part, especially by reducing unnecessary travel, while promising to ‘do everything possible to distribute fuel’.

The leader’s statement was ‘a terrible admission of failure’, according to Alioune Tine, the former independent UN expert on the human rights situation in Mali.

The ruling military junta, which seized power in back-to-back coups in 2020 and 2021, had vowed to halt the jihadist expansion that has plagued the country for more than a decade.

It has severed ties with former Western military allies, including France, and instead partnered with Russian paramilitaries to fight jihadists.

Smoke rises following paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) drone attacks targeting the northern port of Sudan’s Red Sea city of Port Sudan on Tuesday, May 6, 20

A large burned area and many burned vehicles along flat land in El Fasher, northwestern Sudan, October 15, 2025

But Bakary Sambe, of the Dakar-based Timbuktu Institute think tank, said “the Malian state no longer controls anything on its territory.” Instead, he said he was ‘concentrating his forces around Bamako to secure the regime’.

And he added that the public’s initial support for the junta “began to erode in the face of the military regime’s failure to keep its security promise.”

Faced with the worsening situation, the US and the UK announced that they would withdraw non-essential personnel from Mali at the end of October.

Some other embassies, including France, most recently on Friday, asked their citizens to leave the country.

Last week, militants in Sudan reportedly carried out horrific public gang rapes and murdered 40 people at a funeral as the country’s ‘nightmare of violence’ continues.

Frightened people forced to flee Al-Fasher after falling into the hands of Rapid Support Forces described horrific abuse, including rape, at the hands of the militants.

Speaking from a makeshift shelter, Amira, a mother of four, said: ‘The rapes were gang rapes. ‘Public gang rape, public rape, and no one could stop it.’

‘You will sleep and they will come and rape you,’ Amira said, using a pseudonym, while speaking at a webinar organized by campaign group Avaaz.

‘I saw with my own eyes that there were people who could not afford to pay and the warriors took their daughters instead. They said, ‘If you can’t pay your money, we will take the girls.’ If you had a young daughter, they would take it immediately.’

Fires and smoke around El Fasher Airport, Sudan, 26 October 2025

Two girls stand next to a burnt car at the Bungha Central Mosque in Mangu, Nigeria, on February 2, 2024

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said more than 300 survivors of sexual violence sought help from its teams in Tawila following an earlier RSF attack on the nearby Zamzam camp last spring, which displaced more than 380,000 people.

According to a report prepared by aid organizations, even the youngest children are brutally raped.

Christians in Nigeria welcomed Donald Trump’s threat to send the US military “with firearms” into the West African country, but its leaders remain wary of American intervention.

Nigeria has been rocked by internal violence since 2009 following a jihadist insurgency led by the northeastern extremist group Boko Haram.

Trump, 79, had already described Nigeria as a “country of particular concern” but after hearing about the situation on Fox News, he took his condemnation of the situation in the country even further, threatening to cut aid and even send in US troops.

Some Christian communities welcomed the US president’s threat, believing that foreign armies were needed to restore peace in their countries.

“We see President Trump as our second God,” said Bamshak Daniel, a Christian community leader. Wall Street Magazine.

‘We were praying for a supernatural intervention that would save the lives of our people. President Trump must hurry and carry out this military intervention.’

Nigerian President Bola Tinubu was shocked by the fiery ‘firearms’ rhetoric from the leader of one of his country’s most important partners.

A Nigerian soldier stands on top of a military truck during the Nigerian Chief of Staff’s tour of Theater Command Operation Lafiya Dole in Maimalari Cantonment in Maiduguri, Borno, Nigeria, November 7, 2025

Burnt grains and farm equipment lie in a warehouse after a deadly shooting in Yelwata, Benue State, Nigeria, June 16, 2025

The Journal said Trump was stunned when he first saw the Truth Social post, which he made during his morning routine of drinking a shot of espresso and attending a routine doctor’s check-up.

Tinubu, a 73-year-old Muslim who is married to one of Nigeria’s most prominent Christian Pentecostal preachers, said Trump’s comment on his country’s malaise was a “gross misrepresentation of the truth.”

Amidst various forms of bloodshed, including ethnic rivalry and banditry across the country, Islamist militants are slaughtering Christians as well as Muslims whom they deem ‘apostates’ for not conforming to their brand of Islam.

There was also a separate attack by Fulani Muslim tribes against mostly Christian farming communities; a protracted crisis linked to complex issues such as religion, ethnicity, and conflict over the dwindling supply of arable land.

Although Christians were among those targeted, analysts say the majority of victims of armed groups in Nigeria’s Muslim-majority north, where most of the attacks occurred, were Muslims, according to the Associated Press.