Rights group urges AU to take action to end crackdown on opposition, dissent in Mali
Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) – Human Rights Watch (HRW) has written a letter to African Union officials urging the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights to take urgent action to stop the Malian junta’s crackdown on the political opposition and dissent.
The Commission should give immediate attention to the cases of several political figures who are or were presumed forcibly disappeared by the Malian authorities or have been detained for politically motivated reasons, the letter said.
“The Commission should request an invitation from the Malian government to visit the country at the earliest possible opportunity,” said Allan Ngari, Africa advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. “Such a visit would send a clear message to the authorities that the Commission takes the enforced disappearance of leading political figures and the respect for the rights of other Malian political opponents and activists as matters of the utmost seriousness.”
HRW said in a press release on Thursday that since Mali’s military junta took power in a 2021 coup, it has been on a “relentless assault” against the political opposition, peaceful dissent, civil society, and the media, shrinking the country’s civic and political space.
“The authorities have dissolved political and civil society organizations, forcibly disappeared political figures and whistleblowers, arbitrarily arrested journalists and political opponents, and forced scores into exile.”
HRW said credible sources it interviewed said on 5 February, 2025, Daouda Magassa was abducted by men in civilian clothes in Bamako, Mali’s capital. Magassa is a critic of the military junta and a member of the Coordination of Movements, Associations and Supporters of Imam Mahmoud Dicko (Coordination des mouvements, associations et sympathisants de l'imam Mahmoud Dicko, CMAS), a political organization that has been calling for presidential elections as part of restoring civilian democratic rule in Mali.
Magassa’s family and colleagues have not had contact with him and the authorities have failed to officially respond to their requests for information.
On 11 February, Radio France Internationale reported that Magassa was being held at the National Agency for State Security (Agence nationale de la Sécurité d'État, ANSE), the Malian intelligence services.
In March 2024, the government dissolved the CMAS, accusing it of “destabilization and threat to public security”.
Magassa’s enforced disappearance comes as the group’s supporters have been calling for the return of Mahmoud Dicko, head of the CMAS and an influential religious figure, who left Mali for Algeria in December 2024.
HRW cited other instances where critics have been abducted or are currently detained across Mali for politically motivated reasons.
“The junta in Mali has gone to extreme lengths to stifle the political opposition and any forms of criticism,” Ngari said. “The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights should press the Malian authorities to abide by their human rights obligations, to respect, protect, promote, and fulfil the rights to freedoms of expression, opinion, and association.”
-0- PANA MA 14Feb2025
