DAKAR, May 10, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Two opposition leaders in Mali have been missing since Thursday after being abducted by masked gunmen, Human Rights Watch said, amid a growing crackdown on dissent by the military government.

Abba Alhassane, 68, the general secretary of the Convergence for the Development of Mali (CODEM), was arrested at his home in the capital Bamako by "masked gunmen claiming to be gendarmes" and taken away in an unmarked car, the rights group said in a statement.

El Bachir Thiam, a leader of The Change party, was taken "off the streets of Kati town" near Bamako on the same day, the group said, citing party members and local media.

"Alhassane and Thiam's colleagues said they have searched for them in police and gendarmerie stations across Bamako and Kati to no avail," HRW said.

A senior official at the Ministry of Territorial Administration, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP the two politicians "are currently being questioned by the relevant authorities for investigative purposes".

Mali's military rulers have been cracking down on dissent following back-to-back coups in 2020 and 2021.

Officers who took power after the coups said they would hand over to a civilian administration by 2024. But they have progressively restricted expressions of opposition to the military administration.

Last weekend, in a rare act of defiance against the junta, a coalition of opposition parties managed to mobilise several hundred people for a demonstration in Bamako.

HRW said the parties of Alhassane and Thiam were among those that took part in the protest, which prompted the government to suspend the activities of political parties "for reasons of public order".