French journalist Olivier Dubois arrived free at Niamey airport in Niger on Monday, nearly two years after he was kidnapped in Mali by the jihadist alliance of the Support Group for Islam and Muslims (GSIM), a observed an AFP journalist. “I feel tired but I’m fine,” he said as he got off the plane, smiling and visibly moved, wearing an open white shirt over a t-shirt and beige pants. The journalist spent a total of 711 days in captivity.
Olivier Dubois thanks Niger, thanks France. “I have only thought of my family for two years,” he said, before also thanking @RFI which allowed him to keep in touch with his family during these two years pic.twitter.com/sL18YfAxcJ
— Stanislas Poyet (@stanislas_poyet) March 20, 2023
Released alongside American humanitarian Jeffery Woodke
“It’s huge for me to be here, to be free, I wanted to pay tribute to Niger for its know-how in this delicate mission and to pay tribute to France and to all those who allowed me to be there. today”, added Olivier Dubois in front of several journalists. The French journalist is not the only one to have found a taste for freedom since the American humanitarian Jeffery Woodke, kidnapped in October 2016 in Niger, has also been released. He appeared alongside the Frenchman leaning on a cane and with white hair.
“The hostages were recovered safe and sound by the Nigerien authorities before being handed over to the French and American authorities,” Niger’s Interior Minister Hamadou Souley said Monday at the airport. For its part, Reporters Without Borders, confided its “tremendous relief” concerning the end of this captivity considered “the longest for a French journalist held hostage since the war in Lebanon”.