Kidnapping of Olivier Dubois in Mali: an internal investigation points to failures of the French army

Two months after his release, questions surrounding the kidnapping of Olivier Dubois persist. According to an investigation conducted by several French media, the soldiers of the anti-jihadist operation in the Sahel Barkhane tried to use the French journalist without his knowledge to try to locate a jihadist leader, without preventing his kidnapping in Mali in 2021.

The French Barkhane force was informed of the French journalist's plan to meet in northern Mali with a jihadist leader affiliated with Al-Qaeda, via a fixer serving as an informer for the armies. The military considered using this appointment to locate the emir, Abdallah Ag Albakaye, before giving up because of the risks involved, according to Le Monde, which conducted the investigation with Libération, RFI and TV5Monde.

"No personal fault within the Barkhane force"

Olivier Dubois was kidnapped on April 8, 2021 in Gao, northern Mali, by the GSIM, the main jihadist alliance in the Sahel linked to Al-Qaeda. He collaborated with the daily Libération and the magazine Le Point and lived in Mali since 2015.

According to French media that had access to French and Malian judicial documents relating to the case, the soldiers of Barkhane would have abandoned the operation in extremis, but would not have deployed the appropriate means to prevent the kidnapping of Olivier Dubois in Gao. The journalist was released last March after 711 days in captivity in the Sahel.

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Charged with investigating this case internally, the General Inspectorate of the Armed Forces (IGA) concluded at the end of 2021 that there had been "no personal misconduct within the Barkhane force" but that "the sensitivity of the subject was not taken into account at a sufficient level to conduct (...) a deterrent action against the journalist".

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When contacted, the French Foreign Ministry declined to comment "because of the judicial investigation" underway. The General Staff also did not wish to comment. A diplomatic source recalls that a "red letter" - for formally discouraged - had been sent to Olivier Dubois the day before his abduction to dissuade him from making this trip. The newspaper Libération had for its part refused the interview project of Olivier Dubois because of the risks incurred.