The employee of the daily “Liberation” was removed in Mali in April 2021. The source of this unauthenticated video of a little over a minute and the date it was turned are unknown.
Le Monde with AFP
“ Finally a proof of life Olivier Dubois”, writes the newspaper Liberation on his website, Sunday, March 13th. A video circulating on social networks since Sunday shows a man who seems to be the French journalist, who works for the daily life, hostage of a jihadist group in Mali for nearly a year, and who addresses his relatives and French government.
The source of this unauthenticated video of just over a minute and the date it was turned are unknown.
The man, who appears in good health, addresses his parents and his companion, which he says to receive the messages, his supports and the French government, to which he asks “to continue to do his possible” for his release. According to release, the video is “reached in recent days to its relatives”.
Only French hostage in the world
Olivier Dubois, independent journalist 47 years old living and working in Mali since 2015, Himself announced his kidnapping in a broadcast on social networks on May 5, 2021. He explained to have been removed on April 8 before Gao (North) by the Support Group for Islam and Muslims (GSIM, or JNIM in Arabic), the main jihadist alliance in the Sahel, linked to Al-Qaeda and led by Chef Tuareg Malien Iyad AG Ghaly.
Olivier Dubois is the only French hostage in the world since the liberation, in October 2020, Sophie Pétronin, who had also been removed in Mali. He covered the safe turmoil crossed by the Sahelian country for different media, like the magazine the Africa Point and the Daily Liberation.
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, had insured in January that France did not forget Olivier Dubois. “Onlabable work is led by our diplomatic teams, our soldiers and the competent services” to get his release, he said.