A few tears, smiles, and hugs. Olivier Dubois, hostage for nearly two years of jihadists in Mali, landed in France on Tuesday and found his relatives, telling AFP he had never been mistreated during his 711 days in detention.
Released the day before in Niamey, Niger, with the American hostage Jeffery Woodke, 61, held for his part for more than six years, the journalist was welcomed shortly after noon by his relatives and by President Emmanuel Macron on the base. view of Villacoublay, southwest of the capital.
Dressed in a long-sleeved T-shirt and black pants, a shoulder bag, he appeared very smiling after five hours of travel from Niamey. He found his wife and children in the process before talking for a few minutes with the head of state.
"Yesterday, I couldn't believe it when I arrived at the airport (in Niamey) and I'm starting to realize little by little. There, that's it, I saw my family," he said. at AFP.
"I wasn't mistreated or humiliated or hit or anything," the journalist said shortly after landing at Villacoublay airbase, southwest of Paris.
"There were difficult times but not physical as some have experienced," he added, referring in particular to Jeffery Woodke, whom he said he met only two days before his release.
Olivier Dubois was kidnapped on April 8, 2021 in Gao, northern Mali, by GSIM, the main jihadist alliance in the Sahel linked to Al-Qaeda. He collaborated in particular with the daily Liberation and the magazine Le Point and lived in Mali since 2015.
The 48-year-old reporter was the last known Frenchman to be held hostage by an organization other than a state.
"I was made aware of my release on March 7," he explained. On the 16th, men took him on a motorbike and then in a pick-up "into what I call the airlock", under a tree, in "the region of Kidal", where he waited for his release.
On Monday, President Macron expressed his "tremendous relief" and expressed his "great gratitude to Niger".
The circumstances of the release of the two men remain unknown for the time being, while relations between France and the ruling junta in Mali have deteriorated considerably. Paris notably withdrew all of the soldiers who were deployed there as part of the anti-jihadist operation Barkhane.
"I know that Niger is involved, the French services", only affirmed Olivier Dubois.
"What we have always been told is that the deterioration in Franco-Malian relations did not tarnish hopes for liberation," commented Christophe Deloire, director general of Reporters Without Borders (RSF), on Tuesday.
"His conditions were by nature rudimentary but (...) he had managed to obtain satisfactory conditions" in detention, he added, specifying that he did not know "why he was released or why now".
Niamey has not yet commented on his role. "The hostages were recovered safe and sound by the Nigerien authorities before being handed over to the French and American authorities," Nigerien Minister of the Interior Hamadou Souley said simply at the airport on Monday.
During his 711 days of detention, only two videos of Olivier Dubois had been published on social networks.
The reporter said he changed places of detention every two to four weeks. “We like when we do not move (…), it gives more comfort, he explained.
"It's just incredible, it's something we've been waiting for for two years. For him the nightmare is over, and for his family too. He will be able to resume his life, even if it will be difficult for him to forget that," her sister, Canèle Bernard, told AFP on Monday.
"We are so proud of him. It is also a moment of memories for us, of the profession of journalist, local and international correspondents, who are our eyes and our ears", commented for his part Dov Alfon, director of the daily Liberation. .
Mali, like its neighbors Niger and Burkina Faso, is going through a serious security crisis with recurrent jihadist attacks.
Kidnappings are one of the serious dangers faced by journalists and humanitarian workers, both local and foreign, in the Sahel. Two employees of the Malian branch of the International Committee of the Red Cross kidnapped between Gao and Kidal, in northern Mali two weeks ago, were released on Sunday evening.
At least three Western hostages are still being held in the Sahel: Australian surgeon Arthur Kenneth Elliott, kidnapped on January 15, 2016, and Romanian security officer Iulian Ghergut, kidnapped on April 4, 2015, both in Burkina Faso. A German cleric, Father Hans-Joachim Lohre, who has not been heard from since November 2022, is considered to have been kidnapped in Mali.
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03/21/2023 15:13:20 - Vélizy-Villacoublay (France) (AFP) - © 2023 AFP
