Kidnapped French journalist freed

FRENCH journalist Olivier Dubois made an emotional return home yesterday after nearly two years in captivity in the Sahel, with his family and President Emmanuel Macron greeting him at an airport near Paris.

The 48-year-old stepped down from the plane and made a beeline to hug family members waiting for him on the tarmac of Villacoublay air base.

Macron embraced Dubois, in a brief break from domestic political turmoil over his government ramming through a divisive pensions reform.

Dubois was kidnapped in Mali on April 8, 2021. He said in a video released by his captors that he was taken by the Support Group for Islam and Muslims (GSIM), the main jihadist alliance in the Sahel, which is linked to al-Qaeda.

He and a US aid worker – 61-yearold Jeffery Woodke, who was seized in south-west Niger in October 2016 – arrived in the Niger capital, Niamey, on Monday after being freed.

“I feel tired but I’m fine,” Dubois said after his arrival. “I want to pay tribute to Niger for its skills in this delicate mission and pay tribute to France, to all those who have helped me to be here today.”

Dubois had been living in Mali since 2015 and freelancing for the French daily Liberation when he was seized. Details of the two men’s release remain unclear, although Woodke thanked the “Nigerien, American and French governments”.

Niger Interior Minister Hamadou Souley, who was at Niamey airport, said: “The hostages were picked up safe and sound by the Nigerien authorities before being handed over to the French and American authorities.”

The head of watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF), Christophe Deloire, said yesterday he did not know “why he had been freed or why now”.

Dubois is believed to have been the only French citizen held hostage by a non-state actor following the release in Mali of aid worker Sophie Petronin in 2020. Paris considers six citizens officially confirmed to be held behind bars in Iran as hostages of a state.

The journalist’s sister, Canele Bernard, said: “It’s just incredible, it’s something we’ve been hoping for two years. The nightmare is over.”

At the Niamey airport, Woodke, 61, was at Dubois’s side. He was seized at gunpoint from his home in Abalak in the Tahoua region of south-western Niger. He had served as a missionary and humanitarian aid worker in Niger for 32 years.

The Sahel has been ravaged by a jihadist campaign that began in northern Mali in 2012. In 2015, the insurgency swept into Burkina Faso and Niger. The violence has killed thousands and displaced millions.