Junta leader of Mali, Gen Assimi Goita
In Mali’s capital, Bamako, at least two pro-democracy figures, including a senior opposition leader, were abducted by armed men after speaking out against the ruling military regime and demanding a return to democratic governance, according to their families and associates.
In Mali’s capital, Bamako, at least two pro-democracy figures, including a senior opposition leader, were abducted by armed men after speaking out against the ruling military regime and demanding a return to democratic governance, according to their families and associates.
This comes just days after the military-led government ordered the suspension of all political party activities, a move that followed Mali’s first major pro-democracy demonstration since the 2020 coup.
Alassane Abba, the secretary-general of the Codem party, was taken from his home Thursday evening by three hooded men in military uniforms, his son told The Associated Press. The men arrived in a vehicle with black tinted windows and no license plate.
“They did not look like bandits,” said Alhousseini Jannatta Alassane, recounting the ordeal.
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Roughly 15 kilometers away in Kati, another activist, El Bachir Thiam of the Yelema party, was also seized by armed men and driven off to an undisclosed location.
“We learned today of the arrest of our activist El Bachir Thiam and I call on the Malian authorities to release him. I call on those who arrested him to release him. A country is not built on gag orders,” declared former Prime Minister Moussa Mara, the Yelema party’s honorary president, in a video message posted to Facebook.
Both Abba and Thiam had recently appeared in media interviews, openly challenging the military’s grip on power and urging a transition back to constitutional rule.
Their disappearances echo the fate of Mamadou Traoré, head of the Alternative for Mali party, who was detained last month after denouncing the junta’s alliance with Russian mercenaries and criticizing military leadership.
General Assimi Goita, who orchestrated back-to-back coups in 2020 and 2021, remains at the helm of the transitional government. Just last week, a national political forum proposed that Goita be appointed president for a renewable five-year term, a move that deepens concerns over Mali’s democratic backslide.