On August 2, 2023, the Court of Commune IV in the Malian capital, Bamako, sentenced the activist and social media influencer, Rokia Doumbia, also known as #Madame vie chère, to one year in prison in the continuing crackdown on critical voices in the troubled country.
The court also hit Doumbia with a fine of one million CFA francs (USD1,600). In a poor country with an average monthly income of USD 110, it will require more than the entire annual income of the average Malian to pay the fine.
And what is the activist’s crime? She had simply spoken out about the security situation and the cost of living in the country in a live TikTok broadcast.
“Under your governance, things are not going well. This transition is a failure with 0%. I wouldn’t even give 1%, but 0%. That’s not why you staged a coup d’état. When you stage a coup because your predecessor failed, the aim is to do better in order to surpass him,” she had said.
“No Malian lives in peace. Insecurity is gaining ground everywhere. During my live shows, people react by denouncing the soaring prices of rice, diesel, oil and sugar”, the blogger continued.
In the current context of “pensée unique” (one-track thinking), amidst the desperate campaign by the junta to win and be seen to be winning the war against the raging insurgency and against the economic fallout of its recent geopolitical decisions in respect of its relations with the West, it would have been naïve for the most ardent optimist to expect Doumbia to have gotten away with her forthright assessment.
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