'Unfailing support' for French journalist Olivier Dubois a year after Mali kidnapping

A year to the day since French journalist Olivier Dubois was taken hostage by a jihadist group in Mali, President Emmanuel Macron says France is "fully mobilised" to ensure his release. RFI, meanwhile, is relaying messages of support on its airwaves. 

Reporters Without Borders projected a giant portrait of Olivier Dubois on the Panthéon, in Paris, as part of their campaign for his release. © Edmond Sadaka/RFI

The 47-year-old freelance journalist was kidnapped on 8 April 2021 in the northern region of Gao by the JNIM, the main jihadist alliance in the Sahel, linked to Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.

Dubois, who had lived and worked in Mali since 2015, made the declaration himself in a video posted on social media on 5 May last year.

A second video, released in March, confirmed Dubois was still alive.

The French presidency issued a statement on Friday in which Emmanuel Macron expressed his "unfailing support" for Dubois and his family and friends.

The President assured them of his "compassion in this painful ordeal" and of the "full mobilisation of the state's services", referring to Dubois as "the only Frenchman held by a terrorist organisation".

Messages of support on RFI

In the video posted in March, Dubois confirmed that he’d be hearing messages from relatives on RFI every 8th of the month for the past year.

Mali’s transitional government suspended RFI's FM broadcasts three weeks ago after testimonies were broadcast accusing the Malian army and its Russian auxilliaries of torture and abuse.

• Malian junta suspension of RFI and France 24 is 'grave attack on press freedom'

But RFI can still be picked up in Mali on shortwave, which is most likely how Dubois managed to hear the messages.

“Some anniversaries are not fun, but I hope you’re as well as you can be,” said André-Georges Dubois, encouraging his son to “stay confident” and "not let himself go".

Dubois’ mother said the family was “mobilised to make sure [he] didn’t fall into oblivion” and called on the government to act.

“Remember that on 8 April, one year after you were kidnapped, more than 80,000 people are at your side,” Dubois' sister Canèle Bernard said, referring to the journalist's support group.

Dubois’ family has made a video with journalists to raise awareness and keep him in the news.

It features several well-known French figures such as rapper IAM, actor Omar Sy, and journalist and former hostage Florence Aubenas.

"We have been under a lot of stress for a year, but we still have the energy to help Olivier by making noise and talking about him," Bernard said.

In an open letter published in the daily Libération on Friday, one of Dubois' employers, along with the Society of Journalists of many French media, called on the future French president to make securing Dubois' release a priority.