In a chilling act of violence, a prominent TikTok influencer in Mali was abducted and executed by armed men, authorities confirmed on Monday. Mariame Cissé, known for her pro-military posts on the platform, was forcibly taken from a weekly market in Echel on Friday. The following evening, she was brought to Independence Square in Tonka and publicly executed in front of a horrified crowd. Yehia Tandina, the mayor of Timbuktu, provided these harrowing details to The Associated Press. Mamadou Konipo, the mayor of Tonka, corroborated the incident but noted a lack of further information. Tonka, a village near the Niger River approximately 150 kilometers from Timbuktu, is a known stronghold for the al-Qaida-linked group Jama’at Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM). No group has yet claimed responsibility for the killing. Cissé, who amassed over 140,000 followers on TikTok, frequently shared images of herself in military attire, which likely drew the attention of her assailants. She had reportedly received death threats days before her abduction. Mali has been grappling with escalating violence since 2012, with JNIM and other armed groups dominating vast rural areas. The military seized power in 2020, citing the need to address insecurity, but the situation has deteriorated further, exacerbated by a recent fuel blockade imposed by JNIM.