Mali opposition leader held hostage along with his delegation

by Viruben
Mar 27, 2020

Militants are holding Mali’s main opposition leader, Soumaila Cisse, as well as 6 members of his delegation hostage following an attack on their campaign trail.

Reuters reports that that the militants attacked Cisse during an ambush between villages in the northern region of Timbuktu.

According to Demba Traore, a spokesman for Cisse’s party, there has not been a request for ransom yet. Reuters indicates that Militants with links to Al Qaeda and ISIL have frequently launched attacks in the region however no group has claimed responsibility yet.

This attack precedes upcoming elections which were planned for Sunday despite concerns over coronavirus. On Thursday, Mali confirmed 4 cases of COVID-19, it was one of the last countries in West Africa to confirm a case. The election was planned for 2018 but has been repeatedly pushed back due to insecurity.

Read more from Reuters.

Add new comment

About text formats

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Web page addresses and email addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Global and entity tokens are replaced with their values. Browse available tokens.

Restricted HTML

  • You can align images (data-align="center"), but also videos, blockquotes, and so on.
  • You can caption images (data-caption="Text"), but also videos, blockquotes, and so on.
  • Global and entity tokens are replaced with their values. Browse available tokens.
  • You can embed media items (using the <drupal-media> tag).

We need your support

Sri Lanka is one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a journalist. Tamil journalists are particularly at threat, with at least 41 media workers known to have been killed by the Sri Lankan state or its paramilitaries during and after the armed conflict.

Despite the risks, our team on the ground remain committed to providing detailed and accurate reporting of developments in the Tamil homeland, across the island and around the world, as well as providing expert analysis and insight from the Tamil point of view

We need your support in keeping our journalism going. Support our work today.

link button