BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — Opposition politicians arrested in a crackdown in Mali were sent to prisons across the country this week, their families said. Rights groups deplore the move as another step backward for the country, now that the ruling junta has suspended all political activities.
Mali, a landlocked country in the semi-arid Sahel region, has been mired in political instability that has engulfed West and Central Africa over the past decade. The country has seen two military coups since 2020, as the insurgency of jihadist groups linked to Al Qaeda and the Islamic State group worsened. The junta has ruled the country with an iron fist and suspended all political activities earlier this year.
The 11 opposition politicians were arrested earlier this month during a meeting at a private home, Mali’s National Human Rights Commission, a government agency, said in a statement, denouncing “arbitrary arrests” and “violations of private homes.”
A relative of one of the detainees said on Wednesday that they had been divided into two groups: one was sent to Koulikoro prison, 60 kilometers (37 miles) from Bamako, and the other to a new prison 70 kilometers (43 miles) from Bamako. The family member spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of repercussions from authorities.
The dissidents are being held on charges of attacking and conspiring against the government, resisting legitimate authority and violating public order, but they have not yet been tried, a judicial official said.
Ousmane Diallo, a Dakar-based researcher on the Sahel region at Amnesty International, a rights group, said the arrests showed “the pattern of abuse of civil and political rights” in Mali since February.
“We condemn the crackdown on opposition politicians in Mali, the dissolution of political parties and the suspension of all political activities,” Diallo said. “We condemn how the security and intelligence services and sheer force have been used to curtail any opportunity for Malian citizens to share their political views.”
In April, the junta issued a decree suspending all activities of political parties and “associations of a political nature” in the name of maintaining public order. The political parties appealed the decision to the Supreme Court, but it is not clear when the appeal will be heard.
It is becoming increasingly dangerous to express dissatisfaction with Malian authorities, experts say, with those who dare to speak out and risk arrest. Journalists and activists have also disappeared, only to return later, while many media correspondents have left Mali because they were not allowed to work.
The junta is pushing the country toward “political impasse,” said Alioune Tine, the founder of the AfrikaJom Center, a research organization and U.N. expert on human rights in Mali. “The complex security crisis can be solved by bringing Malians together, with respect for political and democratic pluralism, but not through the dogmatic use of repression against all political dissidents.”
Earlier this month, a coalition of anti-junta political parties, Appel du 31 Mars, called on citizens to demonstrate against Bamako’s electricity shortage and high cost of living, and to demand a return of constitutional order to demand.
Only one person showed up to cover the event: Yeri Bocoum, a young social media activist.
The next day, Bocoum wrote on Facebook that he was being followed by unknown men and threatened. A day later, on June 8, as he left his home in the city of Kati, the junta stronghold, he was kidnapped.
“He left his house at 2 p.m. on June 8 and a few hundred meters away, armed men arrested him and asked local people watching the scene to go back to their homes and close their doors,” said his sister, Kadidia Bocoum , to The Guardian. Associated Press. “The men who kidnapped him took him and his car.”
The family contacted authorities but has not heard from him since, Bocoum said.
