Judge kidnapped as legal profession targeted in Mali

BAMAKO: A district judge was kidnapped in central Mali late on Thursday, police and security sources told AFP, two weeks after a High Court justice escaped an attempt on his life. Attacks on figures of state authority are common in northern and central Mali, where a jihadist insurgency and the near absence of government functions have fuelled lawlessness. “Judge Soungalo Kone was kidnapped on Thursday night by armed men who arrived at his house in Niono in a white vehicle,” a local police source in the Segou region told AFP, referring to the town where Kone lives and works. “He was returning home when armed men appeared, which indicates he was being watched,” the source added.