Opposition activists arrested in a crackdown in Mali were moved to prisons

Opposition politicians who were arrested in a crackdown in Mali were sent to prisons across the country this week, their families said, in a move rights groups decried as another step back for the country where the ruling junta has suspended all political activities.

Mali, a landlocked nation in the semiarid region of Sahel, has been embroiled in political instability that swept across West and Central Africa over the last decade. The nation has seen two military coups since 2020 as an insurgency by jihadi groups linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group worsened. The junta has ruled the country with an iron fist, and earlier this year suspended all political activities.

The eleven opposition politicians were arrested earlier this month during a meeting in a private residence, the Malian National Human Rights Commission, a government agency, said in a statement, denouncing what it called “arbitrary arrests” and “violations of private homes."

A family member of one of the detainees said Wednesday that they were divided into two groups, one sent to Koulikoro prison, 60 kilometres (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 held on charges of attacks and conspiracy against the government, opposition to legitimate authority and breach of public order, but they haven't been tried yet, a judicial official said.

Ousmane Diallo, Dakar-based researcher on the Sahel region at Amnesty International, a rights group, said the arrests demonstrated “the pattern of abuse of civil and political rights" in Mali since February.

“We denounce the crackdown on the opposition politicians in Mali, the dissolution of political parties and suspension of all political activities,” Diallo said. “We denounce how the security and intelligence services and sheer force have been used to clamp down on any possibility for Malian citizens to share their political views."

In April, the junta issued a decree suspending all activities by political parties and “associations of 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 would be considered.

It's becoming increasingly perilous to express dissatisfaction with the Malian authorities, experts said, with those who dare to speak out risking 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 driving the country toward “a 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 resolved by bringing Malians together, respecting political and democratic pluralism, but not by the dogmatic use of repression against all political dissent.”

Earlier this month, a coalition of political parties opposed to the junta, Appel du 31 Mars, called on citizens to demonstrate against the shortage of electricity in Bamako and the high living costs, and to demand a return of constitutional order.

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 unidentified men and threatened. A day later, on June 8, as he was leaving his house in the city of Kati, the junta's 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 into their homes and close their doors," his sister, Kadidia Bocoum, told The Associated Press. “The men who kidnapped him took him and his car away."

The family reached out to the authorities but has not heard from him since Bocoum said.