Since She condemned the mistreatment of the Malian army and its Russian auxiliaries before the United Nations Security Council on January 27 and was accused by Minister Diop of serving “hidden purposes”, the vice-president of the Kisal Association has aimed to support the ultra – Violent attacks on social networks.
Stop talking. Hidden. Faced with the outbreak of violence she has been experiencing for the past week, Aminata Dicko has had to leave her homeland to “seek refuge in a safe place” somewhere in Bamako. While waiting for the storm to pass, the representative of Kisala in Mali, vice president of this human rights defense association, has decided not to speak publicly. Kisal, on condition of anonymity.
“Hidden agendas” and calls for murder
On January 27, Aminata Dicko was invited by the United Nations to appear before the Security Council as a member of civil society. Head of the Malian section of Kisal, the human rights observatory for pastoral communities in the Sahel, this daughter of a former MP from Douentza County in central Mali is witnessing the violence of jihadist groups.
But also the Malian army and its Russian auxiliaries, especially against the Fulani community. The response of Malian Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop was immediate and sharp: questioning his “credibility” and his “representativeness”, he denounces “the exploitation of civil society” in the service of “hidden agendas”.
Since then, Aminata Dicko and the Kisal Association have been the subject of mass messages on social networks: allegations of treason, collaboration with jihadists, or hatred of France, but also calls for murder against them. the entire Fulani community.
These posts are from unknown individuals or accounts associated with conspiratorial kingdoms or networks that call themselves “Neo-Pan-Africanists” or “Patriots”. Their attacks mainly target Aminata Dicko, but Dougoukolo Ba Konaré, son of former President of the Republic Alpha Oumar Konaré and co-founder of the Binta Sidibé-Gascon association, another Kisal vice-president who regularly addresses the media and has been the subject of several weeks an extensive defamation campaign.
Taboo subjects
The allegations of ill-treatment of the Malian army and its Russian auxiliaries and attacks on the Fulani community during so-called “counter-terrorism” military operations have become taboo in Mali. “This ethnic issue is denied,” underscored the Kisala image.
The authorities refuse to talk about it and those who do are accused of having a hidden agenda or wanting to divide Mali, but this denial reinforces the antagonisms! And to continue: “The state is not our enemy and we have never hidden it. On the contrary, our work aims to alert the authorities and give them the opportunity to react.
Since the beginning of the transition period, political opponents, journalists’ organizations, human rights organizations, or, more recently, a panel of independent experts mandated by the United Nations, have constantly warned about the restriction of civic space in Mali, on the intimidation and violence suffered by those who dare to raise these subjects. Sometimes by sympathizers of the transitional authorities, indulging in insults, threats, and even physical attacks.
Sometimes by the authorities themselves: temporary or permanent suspension of the media, arrest – legal or extra-judicial – of political activists, legal proceedings brought against voices critical of the regime.