It will soon be a year since he was kidnapped.
In a recently released video, French journalist Olivier Dubois, kidnapped on April 8 in Mali by a jihadist group, urges the French government to do everything to free him.
“To my government, I ask to continue to do everything possible to work for my release.
I am aware that my case is a small thing in the face of the challenges and events it faces.
But yesterday as today, I continue to keep hope, “he said, according to the comments reported this Sunday by Liberation, which employed him.
“My name is Olivier Dubois.
I was abducted on April 8, 2021 in Gao, by the Support Group for Islam and Muslims.
This message is addressed to my family, my loved ones as well as to my government”, says Olivier Dubois facing the camera, “in a calm and assured voice” according to Liberation.
It is not known when the video was shot, but it could be from a month ago, according to the newspaper.
Kidnapped by the band he wanted to interview
The broadcast of this video shows “that the kidnappers want to move the negotiations forward, analyzes a former French hostage with Liberation.
So long after his capture, it was high time.
But hostage negotiations in the Sahel have a reputation for being excruciatingly slow.
French President Emmanuel Macron assured in January that France did not forget Olivier Dubois.
"Tireless work is being carried out by our diplomatic teams, our military and the competent services" to obtain his release, he said.
Olivier Dubois had been kidnapped a few days after having proposed to Liberation the interview of an executive of the jihadist group Support Group for Islam and Muslims.
An interview that the newspaper had refused, judging the initiative too dangerous, but which the journalist had nevertheless undertaken.
In a first video, broadcast in May, Olivier Dubois had called on the authorities to do “everything in their power” to free him.
He is currently the only French hostage in the world.