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Reacting to the disappearance of Malian lawyer and leading opposition figure Mountaga Tall in the early hours of 3 May, Ousmane Diallo, Senior Researcher on Sahel at Amnesty International’s Regional Office for West and Central Africa, said:

“We are alarmed by the disappearance of Mountaga Tall who was taken from his home by armed men wearing hoods. To date, no one knows if or where he is being held, and if charges have been brought against him. Malian authorities must urgently reveal his fate and whereabouts, and immediately release him or follow due process if he is being accused of any offences.

Authorities must end their restrictions on civic space and attacks on human rights.

Ousmane Diallo, Senior Researcher on Sahel at Amnesty International’s Regional Office for West and Central Africa

“We have observed a pattern of abductions in Mali carried out by agents of the National Agency for State Security (ANSE). Authorities must end their restrictions on civic space and attacks on human rights and uphold the country’s human rights obligations and commitments.”

Background

In the early hours of 3 May 2026, leader of the National Congress for Democratic Initiative (Congrès National pour l’Initiative Démocratique – CNID) Mountaga Tall was abducted from his home in Bamako by armed and hooded men in unlicensed vehicles. In a statement released on 3 May, his family denounced the lack of grounds cited for what they believe is his arrest and the lack of information regarding his fate or detention.

If this abduction was conducted by, or with the support or acquiescence of state agents, it amounts to an enforced disappearance and it places Mountaga Tall outside of the protection of the law and under a high risk of torture or other ill-treatment.  

Over the last three years, Mountaga Tall, a key figure in Mali’s political democratization during the 1990s, challenged the dissolution of political parties by the military-led authorities in Malian courts and tribunals, and defended in court several political figures arbitrarily detained.

On 25 April 2026, the armed group the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims, in coordination with the armed group the Front for the Liberation of Azawad, carried out simultaneous attacks in six cities in Mali, resulting in many casualties, including the Minister of Defence. On 1 May, the military court in Bamako announced that an investigation into the attacks was underway and that several individuals, including politicians and members of the army, have been arrested with further arrests expected.

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