Journalist Olivier Dubois is kidnapped in Mali
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian announced today, Sunday, the kidnapping of a journalist in Mali by a terrorist group. Le Drian said, in an interview, that journalist Olivier Dubois, with whom he had lost contact since early April in Mali, was considered kidnapped by a terrorist group.
After his kidnapping, Dubois appeared in a video clip. “We can believe that this journalist is now a new hostage (...) Everything leads us to believe that he is a hostage of a terrorist group,” he said.
In a short video of about twenty seconds duration, Dubois said he was kidnapped on April 8th in the Gao region by a terrorist group in the Sahel region.
After that, the French government confirmed the "disappearance" of the journalist.
For its part, the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor opened a preliminary investigation into "kidnapping within an organized group" and "association with a terrorist organization."
"We are sparing no effort, as usual, every time," Le Drian emphasized. We succeeded in many cases ”even if“ it took a long time sometimes ”, without revealing further details.
There have been no more French hostages in the world since the release in October 2020 of Sophie Petronan, who was kidnapped in 2016 by gunmen in Gao. Petronan was liberated with the Malian politician Ismail Cisse, who later died, and two Italians, Nicolas Kiaccio and Pierre Luigi Macalli, who were also kidnapped by the terrorists.
Olivier Dubois, a 46-year-old freelance journalist who has lived and worked in Mali since 2015, has covered the security turmoil in this country for various media outlets, "Le Point Africa" magazine and "Liberation" newspaper.
He had gone on an individual initiative to Gao to hold a meeting in the "Tlatai" area, 150 kilometers from Gao.
"At first, we thought he had disappeared," the foreign minister said. A video has since surfaced. ”
Source: AFP
