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“This French journalist who works in Mali appeared in an nameless video recording that was broadcast on social networks yesterday, notes the web site, amongst different issues. Sahara Media, indicating that he was kidnapped in Mali in early April. The French International Ministry confirmed the kidnapping. (…) On this video, Sahara Media continues, Olivier Dubois, 46, declared kidnapped on April 8 within the Gao area by the Islamist and Muslim Help Group, affiliated with Al-Qaeda in Maghreb Islam, led by Iyad Ag Ghali . The journalist was wearing conventional garments, his beard neatly trimmed and spoke in a decided voice that regarded on the digicam. However Sahelian added, the actions of his fingers and legs mirrored a bit pressure. “
World Africaintroduced for its half within the wake {that a} “preliminary investigation into the kidnapping of an organized gang and in reference to a terrorist firm had been launched in France by the nationwide prosecution in opposition to terrorism.”
He knew the dangers
French every day Launch, for which Olivier Dubois works, title this morning on the entrance web page: “Olivier Dubois, hostage journalist”
“Working within the area entails dangers,” factors out the liberation. All journalists specializing within the Sahel know this. Olivier is absolutely conscious of this. In late March, he proposed to Liberation to interview a head of GSIM in Gao, northern Mali. He has strong contacts within the jihadist sphere. A few of them agreed to his security. The person he needed to fulfill, Abdallah Ag Albakaye, is a lieutenant of the armed Islamist group, an middleman within the hierarchy, energetic within the Talataye space. ”
It was surely throughout this assembly in Gao that Olivier Dubois was kidnapped.
Lure?
And Liberation questioned: “when did the plan go off the rails? Was Olivier put in a entice set by Ag Albakaye? Or has his presence aroused the need of one other jihadist chief? In a short time, his household, his associates, selected the newspaper Reporters With out Borders to preserve quiet about their disappearance. For logistical causes, his interview might need been delayed, one would suppose. Possibly he was nonetheless the host of the jihadists and never their prisoner. All of the media noise, the untimely motion of Barkhane risked his life. Each day, each week that handed, nevertheless, took the speculation of a granted “invitation.” Yesterday’s video all of the sudden shatters that hope. And burst the delicate bubble of silence that surrounded him. ”
The Sahel: info black gap
“This hostage-taking reveals how a lot this Sahelo-Saharan strip is ‘mediaphage’,” he says. Paalga Observerin Burkina Faso. “From Ghislaine Dupont and Claude Verlon from RFI, kidnapped and executed since November 2013 in Kidal, to Olivier Dubois, together with the Spanish and Irish journalists who had been murdered on April 26 in Pama in japanese Burkina Faso, there are lots of of them, our colleagues. to have been kidnapped or killed on this “Sahel checklist” by all risks. In line with Reporters With out Borders, “this area is nearly a black info gap at the moment”, the place those that put their lives susceptible to info persecution disappear. And we may possibly know the fact on the bottom and have rigorously organized, like Dubois, his media expedition, that we all the time danger being engulfed by quicksand within the Sahelo-Saharan strip, the place hazard lurks behind each dune. “
Don’t cancel
Lastly Ledjelyin Conakry wonders: “can journalists and may they shrink back from the martyrdom skilled by the peoples of those areas?” Ought to we not be interested by the bloody abuses perpetrated by jihadist hordes on those that have the misfortune to be in these locations of injustice? If we give in to this surrounding concern, how will the general public learn concerning the many abuses and abuses during which the common armies and worldwide troops claiming to be combating terrorism are additionally concerned? To offer up, Ledjely concludes, is just not a answer. “
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