The NGO Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) demanded on Monday March 14 the release of French journalist Olivier Dubois, hostage of a jihadist group in Mali and whose unauthenticated video is circulating on the social networks.
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The provenance of this video of just over a minute, and the date on which it was shot are unknown.
She appeared on the web over the weekend, as that of Olivier Dubois who was kidnapped in Mali almost a year ago.
The man, who appears to be in good health, speaks to his parents and his partner, from whom he says he receives messages, to his supporters and to the French government, to which he asks to "
continue to do his best
" for his release .
.
RSF calls on the French and Malian authorities to redouble their efforts to obtain the release of Olivier Dubois.
According to the Paris-based organization, the video "
broadcast this weekend on social networks is reassuring proof of life, a week after the screening of his portrait organized by RSF at the Panthéon in Paris
".
Based in New York, the CPJ called for him, in a press release Monday, the "
immediate
" release of the French journalist.
"
Those holding Dubois should release him safely without delay, and should cease all efforts to harass and kidnap members of the press
," the statement added.
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Olivier Dubois, a 47-year-old freelance journalist living and working in Mali since 2015, had himself announced his kidnapping in a video broadcast on social networks on May 5, 2021. He explained there that he had been kidnapped on the previous April 8 in Gao (north ) by the Support Group for Islam and Muslims (GSIM, or Jnim in Arabic), the main jihadist alliance in the Sahel, linked to al-Qaeda and led by Malian Tuareg leader Iyad Ag Ghaly.
Olivier Dubois is the only French hostage in the world since the release in October 2020 of Sophie Pétronin, who had also been kidnapped in Mali.
