Rights monitor urges Mali junta to end political repression

Human Rights Watch on Thursday urged the African Union to take urgent action to end the Malian junta's crackdown on political opposition and dissent.

The west African nation, which has been run by the military after two successive coups in 2020 and 2021, is regularly accused of trying to silence criticism.

In its letter to the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, the global monitor said at least 11 people were currently detained "for politically motivated reasons", including opposition politicians.

"Since the military coup, Mali's junta has increasingly cracked down on the political opposition, peaceful dissent, civil society, and the media, shrinking the country's civic and political space," it wrote.

"Authorities dissolved political and civil society organizations, forcibly disappeared a whistleblower, arbitrarily arrested journalists and political opponents, and forced scores into exile."

HRW highlighted the case of Daouda Magassa, a critic of the junta who was a member of a group calling for presidential elections and the restoration of civilian rule.

He was kidnapped by men in civilian clothes in the capital, Bamako, on February 5, it said, quoting sources, and calling for his immediate release.

Allan Ngari, Africa advocacy director at HRW, called for Mali to invite commissioners to visit "at the earliest possible opportunity" to show that the junta takes enforced disappearance of political figures seriously.

Mali is a signatory to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights that underpins the commission.

In 2022, the junta said the military would cede power to civilians after a transition period ending on March 26, 2024 after a presidential election that February.

The election has since been put back indefinitely.

At the end of January, a number of Malian political parties demanded that the junta put forward a new electoral calendar for the return to civilian rule before March 31.