For ten years, many French people have been taken hostage or killed in the Sahel. This region of West Africa, which borders the Sahara in its south, has been facing a strong jihadist surge and security degradation for years.
To read also: From Pau to Nouakchott, the start of operation "Barkhane" against the jihadists
Since 2013 and Operation Serval, France has been present in Mali.In 2014, Operation Barkhane takes over and extends its action to four other countries: Burkina Faso, Niger, Mauritania and Chad.
The region remains particularly dangerous, as evidenced by the French killed on Sunday by armed men in the Kouré area in Niger.
Read also: Niger: French people and their guides killed on Sunday by armed men
These French killed
April 19, 2010: Michel Germaneau, a 78-year-old former engineer and humanitarian activist, is kidnapped in northern Niger and then transferred to Mali. On July 22, a Franco-Mauritanian raid in an attempt to free him, during which seven members of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb were killed, failed. On July 25, Aqmi claims the execution of the retiree.
January 8, 2011: Two young French people, Antoine De Léocour and Vincent Delory, kidnapped the day before in the center of Niamey, are killed in Malian territory during a Franco-Nigerian military intervention intended to rescue them. According to expert reports on the bodies revealed in February 2012, Vincent Delory was burned to death in the fire of the vehicle transporting him, while Antoine de Léocour was executed by his captors.
November 24, 2011: Two Frenchmen Philippe Verdon and Serge Lazarevic, are kidnapped at their hotel in Hombori, Mali. In early December, Aqmi claimed responsibility for the kidnapping.
On March 20, 2013 , Aqmi declared that Philippe Verdon was executed "in response to France's intervention in northern Mali". On July 15, Paris confirms his death, his body having been discovered in this region. The other hostage, Serge Lazarevic, was released on December 9, 2014.
November 20, 2012: Gilberto Rodrigues Leal, who was traveling in a car coming from Mauritania, is kidnapped by at least six armed men in western Mali, near Kayes. On April 22, 2014, the jihadist group Mujao announced his death.
November 2, 2013 : Two French journalists from Radio France Internationale (RFI), Ghislaine Dupont and Claude Verlon, are kidnapped by armed men in Kidal, in northern Mali. Their bodies were found less than two hours later, a dozen kilometers away. On November 6, Aqmi claimed responsibility for their assassination.
These French freed
September 16, 2010 : five French people, a Togolese and a Malagasy, collaborators of the French groups Areva and Satom, are kidnapped in Arlit, a uranium mining site in northern Niger. Aqmi claims the kidnapping. The Frenchwoman and the Malagasy and Togolese hostages were released in February 2011. The last four, Thierry Dol, Daniel Larribe, Pierre Legrand and Marc Féret, were released in October 2013.
May 1, 2019 : Patrick Picque and Laurent Lassimouillas are kidnapped while on a tourist trip in northern Benin, then taken to neighboring Burkina Faso. The body of their Beninese guide was found four days later.
The two French people will be released on the night of May 9 to 10 by French special forces at the same time as a South Korean and an American, captives for 28 days. Two French soldiers lose their lives in the operation.
Sophie Pétronin, still captive
December 24, 2016: A French woman in her sixties, Sophie Pétronin, at the head of a children's aid association, is kidnapped by armed men in Gao, in northern Mali. At the end of March 2020, his relatives, including his son, affirmed that France had "reliable" and recent proof of the hostage's life in Mali.