Human Rights Defender Aminata Dicko, Target of a Violent Smear Campaign

On January 27, Aminata Dicko was invited by the United Nations to appear before the Security Council as a member of civil society. Head of the Malian section of Kisal, the human rights observatory for pastoral communities in the Sahel, this daughter of a former MP from Douentza County in central Mali is witnessing the violence of jihadist groups.

But also the Malian army and its Russian auxiliaries, especially against the Fulani community. The response of Malian Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop was immediate and sharp: questioning his “credibility” and his “representativeness”, he denounces “the exploitation of civil society” in the service of “hidden agendas”.

Since then, Aminata Dicko and the Kisal Association have been the subject of mass messages on social networks: allegations of treason, collaboration with jihadists, or hatred of France, but also calls for murder against them. the entire Fulani community.

These posts are from unknown individuals or accounts associated with conspiratorial kingdoms or networks that call themselves “Neo-Pan-Africanists” or “Patriots”. Their attacks mainly target Aminata Dicko, but Dougoukolo Ba Konaré, son of former President of the Republic Alpha Oumar Konaré and co-founder of the Binta Sidibé-Gascon association, another Kisal vice-president who regularly addresses the media and has been the subject of several weeks an extensive defamation campaign.