More than three months after their kidnapping by armed men in the Timbuktu region, rapper Dr Keb and a member of his group have been released, the Malian presidency announced on Tuesday (November 16th). Amadou Kébé alias “Dr Keb”, 27, and his musician colleague Ousmane Coulibaly, known as “Dr Bacozy”, were released on Monday in Timbuktu, the presidency said on Twitter. An official ceremony to mark their release was organized Tuesday in Bamako.
The singer and three members of his group were on their way to northern Mali for concerts in that region when they were kidnapped on July 29 in Goundam. Two members of the group were then released within days. “It is a local militia of Gourma Rhaouss [région de Tombouctou] who had kidnapped the young rapper “ and his colleague, said a mediator, without further details on this militia and the conditions of release. To conduct this mediation, adds this source, the government asked the administrative authorities of Timbuktu to contact “We, the notables of Gourma Rhaouss”. “We negotiated with the militia”, affirms this mediator on condition of anonymity.
According to International Radio France (RFI), the two men were in the hands of a group of fighters affiliated with Katiba Macina and therefore with the Support Group for Islam and Muslims (GSIM), itself linked to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).
Abductions of Malians often occur in Mali, alongside those, more publicized, targeting foreigners. The Sahelian country has been delivered since 2012 to the actions of groups affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State (IS) organization, as well as violence of all kinds perpetrated by self-defense militias and bandits. The regular forces are themselves accused of abuses. The violence, which started in the north in 2012, spread to the center of the country, but also to neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger. They have caused thousands of deaths, civilians and soldiers, and hundreds of thousands of displaced people, despite the deployment of UN, French and African forces.
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