Mali influencer arrested after denouncing junta's 'failure'
The arrest of Rokia Doumbia came days after another media figure, radio and TV presenter Mohamed Youssouf Bathily, widely known as "Ras Bath", was jailed for alleging former prime minister Soumeylou Boubeye Maiga had been "murdered" while in detention last year.
Tensions have risen since junta leader Colonel Assimi Goita, who took control after two coups since August 2020, last week postponed a constitutional referendum -- a key part of his pledge to hold democratic elections in February 2024.
Doumbia, known for her popular posts against soaring prices, told AFP she had been arrested Monday after a live TikTok broadcast in Bamako.
A prosecutor who requested anonymity said she had been held two days and charged with "inciting rebellion" and "troubling public order via communication technologies".
"Under your governance, nothing is working," Doumbia said of Goita in the broadcast. "This transition is a failure with zero percent [results]. I wouldn't even given you one percent, but zero percent."
"No Malian lives in peace," she added, mocking the junta's claims of success against Islamic insurgents that have carried out deadly attacks for more than a decade.
"History will show that IBK was right," she said, referring to former president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, who was ousted in the coup carried out amid growing anger against the insurgency but also widespread corruption.
"Ras Bath" was detained after a rally Saturday marking the renewal of Keita's party, the Alliance for Solidarity in Mali (ASMA).
He told the crowd that Maiga, who was premier under Keita from 2017 to 2019, "did not die, he was murdered, that's the only word for it".
Maiga had been arrested in August 2021 on fraud and other charges before dying in detention in March 2022, after relatives had requested urgent medical care.
Mali is in the throes of an 11-year-old security crisis triggered by a regional revolt in the north that developed into a full-blown jihadist insurgency.
Since then the military junta has severed ties with France, the country's traditional ally, which has pulled its troops out of Mali, while seeking closer ties with Russia.
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