Assa Traoré

Assa Traoré (born 1985) is a French activist and leader of the Truth and Justice for Adama Committee. The committee is named after her half-brother, Adama Traoré, who died in police custody.The circumstances of Adama's death are disputed. An autopsy raised in court indicated he may have suffered asphyxiation after his arrest, which was admitted by one of the Gendarmes who held him. Since Adama's death she has attempted to challenge the institutions of France, rallying activists from black neighbourhoods and engaging medical experts to try to get to the bottom of his death. On July 18, 2020, in the wake of the George Floyd protests, she participated in the "Marche pour Adama" (March for Adama), and called for the prosecution of the gendarmerie who had supposedly killed her brother.For her services to the Black Lives Matter campaign, she received the BET's Global Good Honouree Award. In 2020, she was named one of Time magazine's "Guardians of the year".