Paris on Friday confirmed the death on June 5 of Baye ag Bakabo, the alleged leader of the command that had kidnapped our colleagues from RFI, Ghislaine Dupont and Claude Verlon, on November 2, 2013 in Kidal, northern Mali. With his death, only one member of the command remains alive and one of the alleged co-organizers of the kidnapping.
On June 5, French special forces led the operation against Baye ag Bakabo and his men as they prepared to attack the base of the UN mission (Minusma) in Aguelhok. But he was not particularly targeted according to Paris.
There were four of them on board the pickup that was used to pick up our colleagues on November 2, 2013 in the heart of Kidal, Mali. Baye and Bakabo, Mahmoud ag Mohamed Lamine Fall, and Al Hassan ag Toukassa, there is only one left, a certain Hamadi ag Mohamed.
This civilian is still part of the jihadist movement. He would even work with Seidane ag Hitta, the other person still alive who is suspected of having played an important role in this case. Seidane, a former National Guard, was actually developed in 2013 under the command of Emir Abdelkrim Touareg (oual-Targui), the man who claimed responsibility for the murders of Ghislaine Dupont and Claude Verlon, and who was also was killed in May 2015 by the French army.
► Also read : The murder of G. Dupont and C. Verlon: Seidane Ag Find, the emergence of the alleged sponsor
Seidane ag Find is one Tuareg very influential in Kidal’s jihadist nebula and the likely co-organizer of the kidnapping of our colleagues. Its name is also associated with kidnapping of French Serge Lazarevic and Philippe Verdon in November 2011. He has since become a lieutenant for Iyad ag Ghali, the head of the Islamic and Muslim Support Group (GSIM). A man who therefore counts in the jihadist hierarchy.
Last year, it was in this capacity that he negotiated on the jihadist side with Bamako for the October 2020 release of Sophie Petronin and Soumaila Cissé against 200 suspected jihadists, imprisoned in Malian prisons. He appeared in daylight with the envoy of Bamako and drew the image of an almost frequent man. A charter that risks complicating the work of French justice …
► Also read: in Mali, one hundred jihadists and prisoners released by the authorities
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