A video circulating on social media since Sunday shows a man who appears to be French journalist Olivier Dubois, who has been held hostage by a jihadist group in Mali for almost a year, and who addresses his relatives and the French government.
The man, who appears to be in good health, speaks to his parents and his partner, from whom he says he receives messages, to his supporters and to the French government, to which he asks to “continue to do his best” for his release. .
The provenance of this unauthenticated video of just over a minute, and the date on which it was shot are unknown.
Olivier Dubois, a 47-year-old freelance journalist living and working in Mali since 2015, had himself announced his abduction in a video posted on social networks on May 5, 2021.
He explained there that he had been kidnapped on April 8 in Gao (north) by the Support Group for Islam and Muslims (GSIM, or Jnim in Arabic), the main jihadist alliance in the Sahel, linked to Al-Qaeda and led by Malian Tuareg leader Iyad Ag Ghaly.
Olivier Dubois is the only French hostage in the world since the release in October 2020 of Sophie Pétronin, who had also been kidnapped in Mali.
He has covered the security turmoil in the Sahelian country for various media, such as the French magazine Le Point Afrique and the French daily Liberation.
French President Emmanuel Macron assured in January that France did not forget Olivier Dubois. “Tireless work is being carried out by our diplomatic teams, our military and the competent services” to obtain his release, he said.