Bamako, Mali:
A French journalist, in a video circulating on social media Wednesday, mentioned he had been kidnapped in Mali in early April by a jihadist group with hyperlinks to Al-Qaeda.
The short video could not be independently verified, though an official at the French foreign ministry confirmed that Olivier Dubois, who worked for numerous media, which includes the international Television channel France 24 and Liberation every day, was missing.
In the video, which lasts about 20 seconds, Dubois mentioned he was abducted on April 8 in the central area of Gao by the Group to Support Islam and Muslims (GSIM), the largest jihadist alliance in the Sahel.
He is seen seated on the ground, on a green sheet that could be a tent, dressed in a light pink standard gown, with his beard trimmed.
The foreign ministry official mentioned, “We are in contact with his family and the Malian authorities. We are carrying out the usual technical verifications” of the video.
Liberation, for which Dubois had been writing consistently due to the fact April last year, declined to make any instant comment.
Mali has been struggling to include an Islamist insurgency which initial broke out in the north of the nation in 2012 just before spreading to the centre and neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger.
Thousands of individuals have been killed and hundreds of thousands have fled their properties, whilst the financial effect on one of the world’s poorest nations has been devastating.
Abductions have been frequent, each of Malians and foreigners.
The last French hostage was Sophie Petronin, a 75-year-old help worker, who was freed in October last year along with Malian politician Soumaila Cisse, who has due to the fact died, and Italians Nicola Chiacchio and Pier Luigi Maccalli.
There has been constant speculation that a ransom was paid for the 4 hostages, one thing that has by no means been confirmed by the Malian government, along with the release of 200 prisoners, some of whom had been jihadists.
In October, Switzerland was informed that the GSIM had killed an evangelical missionary who had been kidnapped in Timbuktu in January 2016.
In March, the Swiss foreign ministry mentioned the woman’s body had been recovered and formally identified.
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