Freedom finally found for Olivier Dubois. The French journalist, hostage for nearly two years of jihadists in Mali, landed in France on Tuesday, after his release the day before. He was welcomed shortly after noon by his relatives and by President Emmanuel Macron at the Villacoublay air base, southwest of the capital.
Dressed in a long-sleeved T-shirt and black pants, a shoulder bag, he appeared very smiling and in good shape, after five hours of travel from Niamey. He was to find his wife and children in the process and then speak for a few minutes with the Head of State.
On Monday, he met journalists shortly after his release accompanied by Jeffery Woodke, an American humanitarian who had been kidnapped on October 14, 2016 in Niger. Olivier Dubois was kidnapped on April 8, 2021 in Gao, in northern Mali, by GSIM, the main jihadist alliance in the Sahel linked to Al-Qaeda. He collaborated in particular with the daily newspaper Release and the magazine Point and lived in Mali since 2015.
Last French hostage
The 48-year-old reporter was the last Frenchman known to be held hostage by an organization other than a state since the release in October 2020 of Sophie Pétronin, also kidnapped in Mali.
“It’s huge for me to be here, to be free, I wanted to pay tribute to Niger for its know-how in this delicate mission and to pay tribute to France and to all those who allowed me to be here today,” he said on Monday. President Macron had for his part expressed his “tremendous relief” and expressed his “great gratitude to Niger for this release”.
Alongside Olivier Dubois, Jeffery Woodke, 61, white hair and supported by a cane, wanted to “thank the Nigerien, American and French governments” for his release. “Long live France”, exclaimed the one who had been kidnapped when he had been helping nomadic populations for thirty years with an NGO in Abalak, in central Niger.
Release circumstances unknown
The circumstances of the release of the two men remain unknown for the time being, while relations between France and the ruling junta in Mali have deteriorated considerably. Paris notably withdrew all of the soldiers who were deployed there as part of the anti-jihadist operation Barkhane.
“What we have always been told is that the deterioration in Franco-Malian relations did not tarnish hopes for liberation,” commented Christophe Deloire, director general of Reporters Without Borders (RSF), on Tuesday. “His conditions were by nature rudimentary but (…) he had managed to obtain satisfactory conditions” in detention, he added, specifying that he did not know “why he was released or why now”.
Niamey has not yet commented on its role in the negotiations. “The hostages were recovered safe and sound by the Nigerien authorities before being handed over to the French and American authorities,” Nigerien Minister of the Interior Hamadou Souley said simply at the airport on Monday.