Posted in:
French journalist Olivier Dubois arrived at Niamey airport on Monday, March 20, 2023, nearly two years after he was kidnapped by the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims in Mali, according to an AFP correspondent.
As he got off the plane, smiling and moved, Dubois was dressed in a white shirt and beige trousers.
French President Emmanuel Macron expressed his “great relief” following the release of French journalist Olivier Dubois, nearly two years after he was kidnapped by jihadists in Mali, who “will soon return to France.”
The French President said in a tweet after a phone call with the journalist who arrived at Niamey airport on Monday that he was “extremely grateful to Niger for this release.”
Nearly two years after he was kidnapped by the Jamaat Nusrat al-Islam wa al-Muslimeen (JNIM) in Mali, French journalist Olivier Dubois arrived at Niamey airport on Monday.
Dubois, a 48-year-old freelance journalist, was kidnapped on April 8, 2021 in Gao, northern Mali, by JNIM, the largest jihadist alliance in the Sahel region linked to Al-Qaeda.
He collaborated in particular with the newspaper “Liberation” and the magazines “Le Point” and “Jeune Afrique”. He has been living and working in Mali since 2015, when he was kidnapped.
He announced that he had been kidnapped in a video posted on social media on May 5, 2021.