French journo kidnapped by jihadist group

A MISSING French journalist said he was kidnapped in Mali by a jihadist group with links to Al-Qaeda, according to a video circulating on social media yesterday, the latest foreigner to be taken hostage in the West African country.

The video of Olivier Dubois, who worked with several French media, could not be immediately verified independently, although Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and the French government confirmed he was missing. In the undated video, which lasts about 20 seconds, Dubois, 46, said he was abducted on April 8 in Gao, northern Mali, by the Group to Support Islam and Muslims, the biggest jihadist alliance in the Sahel.

He is seen seated on the ground on a green sheet, in what could be a tent, dressed in a light pink traditional gown, with his beard trimmed.

Speaking in a firm voice, he asks his family, friends and the French government “to do everything in their power to get me released”.

French government spokesman Gabriel Attal confirmed Dubois’s disappearance in Mali. “I want to immediately send my thoughts to him, his family and all the publications he usually works with,” he said.

Christophe Deloire, the general secretary of media watchdog RSF, tweeted that the journalist had been reporting in Gao, but went missing on April 8.

“This experienced journalist, who usually works for Le Point Afrique and Liberation, knows this highly dangerous region well,” he said.

“We were informed two days after his disappearance. In consultation with the editors he usually worked for, we took the decision not to make this abduction public, in order not to hamper any swift positive outcome.”

He urged the Malian and French authorities “to do everything to secure his freedom”.

Dubois had been writing regularly for Liberation, a left-of-centre daily, since April last year. The newspaper said that Dubois “now finds himself on the other side of the mirror, himself a captive”.

It said Dubois had travelled to Gao to interview a jihadist leader. He disappeared after leaving his hotel on April 8, the statement said. “Two days later, he did not board the return flight to Bamako,” it said, referring to Mali’s capital.

A French foreign ministry official said that the government was in contact with Dubois’s family and the Malian authorities.