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A prominent Malian lawyer and opposition figure, Mountaga Tall, critical of the ruling military government, has been abducted overnight in Bamako, according to his family.
Relatives, while speaking to AFP on Sunday, said masked men took the lawyer from his residence, adding that a formal complaint has been filed over the incident.
A family member who witnessed the abduction said two men wearing face coverings arrived and took him away, while another relative alleged that his wife was assaulted and had her phone seized when she attempted to document the incident.
“Two men in balaclavas came to take him away; they left with him,” a family member said.
Tall was a member of the M5-RFP movement, a key player in the protests that led to the toppling of former president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita.
His abduction comes at a time of heightened tension in Mali, following coordinated attacks on military positions last weekend by Tuareg separatists and jihadist groups linked to Al-Qaeda, and the killing of its defence minister.
The attacks targeted key locations, including Bamako and the nearby garrison town of Kati, leaving at least 23 people dead, with civilians and children among the casualties, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
On Friday, the prosecutor’s office, said there is evidence suggesting some military personnel may have been involved in planning and executing the attacks, while also alleging links to exiled opposition figure Oumar Mariko.
Tall has recently represented military officers detained by the junta on accusations of attempting to destabilise state institutions and has also challenged the government’s decision to dissolve political parties through the courts.
