Could the Barkhane force in Mali have prevented the kidnapping of journalist Olivier Dubois? Revelations sow confusion about the attitude of the French army, which would have intended to locate a jihadist leader who had an appointment with the journalist, before finally giving up.
Olivier Dubois’ captivity ended in March 2023, after 711 days. But could his kidnapping have been avoided? Revelations from RFI, TV5 Monde, Liberation and Le Monde underline the negligence of the French army, which had used the journalist without his knowledge to try to capture a jihadist leader. On April 8, 2021 in Gao (Mali), Olivier Dubois was to interview an executive from an Al-Qaeda subsidiary. The French army was aware, because the journalist’s fixer, nicknamed Kader, intermediary with the jihadists, also operated as a secret informant for the soldiers of Operation Barkhane.
“They had promised money to Kader”
The latter would have thought of taking advantage of the interview to locate the jihadist. “They had promised money to Kader if this jihadist leader were to be arrested or neutralized”, reports Anne-Fleur Lespiaut, correspondent for TV5 Monde in Niger. The soldiers say they abandoned the project, deemed too risky, two weeks before the interview. However, on D-Day, the interpreter continued to inform the French army. The terrorists finally decided that he would not attend the meeting, and kidnapped Olivier Dubois. Why did the soldiers not react? According to the authors of the revelations, they had been warned a few hours before the interview that Olivier Dubois would find himself without an interpreter.
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