Armed, hooded men stormed the Bamako home of Mountaga Tall, a former Malian minister and prominent critic of the country's ruling military government, shortly before midnight Saturday, seizing him without explanation, a family member told the Associated Press.
Tall's relative Mahmoud Touré said the men appeared to be soldiers. They did not present an arrest warrant, did not identify themselves, and did not give a reason for taking Tall away. "The soldiers mistreated Mountaga Tall's wife and took his phone," Touré said.
Tall served as Mali's education and science minister from 2016 to 2017. He leads the National Congress for Democratic Initiative, a political party opposed to the junta, and works as a lawyer representing politicians and others who have been detained for criticizing the military government.
His abduction comes one week after one of the deadliest coordinated attacks against the Malian state in more than a decade. On April 26, jihadist militants and Tuareg separatist rebels jointly struck Bamako and several other cities, seizing towns and military bases. Mali's defense minister, Sadio Camara, was among those killed. The attack was carried out by Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin, known as JNIM, and the Azawad Liberation Front, and represented the heaviest assault on the government since 2012.
On Friday, the military government announced it had evidence that soldiers within its own ranks had collaborated with the attacking groups. The junta has since launched a wave of arrests.
Tall's family filed a complaint "regarding kidnapping and disappearance" with security forces. The government had not commented on the arrests as of Sunday.
