A prominent social media influencer in Mali was detained Wednesday after lambasting the ruling military junta as a "failure" with regards to insecurity and inflation, prosecutors told AFP.
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.
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.
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