On June 9, 2026, Mali’s cybercrime unit summoned and detained Abdrahamane Keïta, publishing director of Le Témoin newspaper, after he stated on the popular TV program “Grand Jury” that Al-Qaeda linked JNIM insurgents control Mali’s northern city of Kidal.
In a series of coordinated attacks on multiple towns in April, JNIM and Mali’s separatist Azawad Liberation Front (FLA) took Kidal from the Malian army and its Russian allies, and killed the defense minister, demonstrating the militants’ growing strength.
Keïta is due to face trial on August 17 for “a crime of a regionalist nature that tends to undermine national unity and the credibility of the state” and publishing false information, said the Press House, Mali’s largest press association.
CPJ’s June 2026 calls to the cybercrime unit went unanswered.