This week, Mali's National Transition Council adopted a bill that effectively abolishes multiparty politics across the country. The new law officially bans opposition political meetings, speeches, and organizations. The action unfortunately came as no surprise given the ruling military junta's recent attacks on the political opposition.
The law formalizes a political atmosphere in Mali in which freedom of expression is increasingly restricted. Days earlier, the country's media regulatory body, Haute Autorite de la Communication (HAC), suspended TV5, an international French-language television network, because the authorities deemed its reporting of the May 3, 2025, anti-junta protests in the capital, Bamako, to be "biased" and "unbalanced." The HAC also accused TV5 of "defamation of the armed and security forces."
The new law coincides with the junta's recent jailing and enforced disappearance of several political opponents, activists, and dissidents.
On May 8, two political opposition leaders, Abba Alhassane and El Bachir Thiam, went missing, sparking fears they may have been forcibly disappeared. Neither have been located, raising concerns for their safety.
Three days later, Abdoul Karim Traore, the youth president of the opposition party Convergence pour le developpement du Mali (CODEM), went missing in Bamako. Like Alhassane and Thiam, Traore took part in the May 3 protests. He was a witness to and publicly denounced Alhassane's abduction. International media has reported that Traore is being held by state security officers.
A day before Traore disappeared, unidentified men in Bamako assaulted democracy activist Cheick Oumar Doumbia, who also took part in the protests. Pro-junta activists have increasingly called for violence against democracy activists and those who participated in the protest.
And on Monday, Abdrahamane Diarra, the communication secretary for the opposition party l'Union pour la Republique et la Democratie (URD), was detained and interrogated by security forces in Bamako. Diarra, a vocal opponent of the dissolution of Mali's political parties, was later released, but the authorities' message has become undoubtedly clear: the space for voicing dissent is closing.
These past few weeks have marked dark days in Mali as the military authorities again raise the stakes for activists advocating a return to democratic civilian rule. The junta should instead release those unjustly held and uphold the right to free expression.
Source: Human Rights Watch
