Several media, including “Le Monde” and RFI, claim that the French force Barkhane tried to use the French journalist without his knowledge to try to locate a jihadist leader, without preventing his kidnapping.
Two months after the release of French journalist Olivier Dubois, an investigation by several media, published on Wednesday May 17, reveals gray areas around the actions of the French army before the kidnapping of the reporter in Mali in 2021. According to the information of Monde (paid item), of Release (paid item), RFI et TV5Mondethe soldiers of Operation Barkhane would have tried to use the journalist without his knowledge to try to locate a jihadist leader, without preventing his abduction.
The French force Barkhane was informed of the French journalist’s plan to meet a jihadist leader affiliated with Al-Qaeda in northern Mali, via a fixer serving as an indicator for the armies, according to the authors of the investigation who had access to French and Malian documents relating to the case. The investigation confirms that the military considered using this appointment to locate this emir before giving up because of the risks involved.
No “fault” according to the army
Released last March, Olivier Dubois was kidnapped on April 8, 2021 in Gao, in northern Mali, by GSIM, the main jihadist alliance in the Sahel linked to Al-Qaeda. He collaborated in particular with the daily newspaper Release and the magazine Point and had lived in Mali since 2015. The investigation suggests that Barkhane’s soldiers would have given up the operation in extremis, but would not have deployed the appropriate means to prevent the kidnapping of Olivier Dubois.
The General Inspectorate of the Armed Forces (IGA) concluded at the end of 2021, in an internal investigation consulted by our colleagues, that there was “no personal fault within the Barkhane force” more than “the sensitivity of the subject has not been taken into account at a sufficient level to lead, with better anticipation, a dissuasive action against the journalist”.
Furthermore, according to this document, Olivier Dubois was “initially considered wrongly as a Malian journalist, an error which may explain the lack of reaction of the Barkhane force”. Contacted by AFP, the French Foreign Ministry declined to comment. “due to judicial investigation” in progress. The staff did not wish to react.
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