ten years after the death of RFI journalists Ghislaine Dupont and Claude Verlon, the difficult investigation into the circumstances of their kidnapping and assassination

Ghislaine Dupont and Claude Verlon died after being kidnapped in Kidal in northern Mali while they were reporting for RFI on November 2, 2013. The act was claimed by AQMi, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and since then, the association of friends of Ghislaine Dupont and Claude Verlon has stopped at nothing to find out the truth. Since this tragedy, November 2 has been declared by the United Nations as the “International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Committed against Journalists.”

The association held a press conference on Monday October 30 to take stock of the investigation, ten years after the events. It turns out that little by little things are becoming clearer even if all the stakeholders do not necessarily collaborate.

According to the association’s lawyer, the UN ranks among its last. In fact, she explains that she has been waiting for four years for photos taken in Kidal by peacekeepers, shortly before the kidnapping of the two French people. However, there is still no answer from the judge’s desk and the families are wondering why the UN is not cooperating.

Mali also encounters difficulties in collaborating. Since the successive coups d’état over the last 3 years in the country, relations with France have deteriorated so much that there is no longer any judicial cooperation between the two countries today. It is therefore no longer a question of having information if it exists on what happened ten years ago now.

Information from former hostage Olivier Dubois

Journalist Olivier Dubois was hostage in Mali for 711 days. He was released on March 11, 2023 and he gave information to the investigating judge who is following the case, in the presence of the association’s lawyer. During his captivity, he had exchanges with Sedane Ag Hita known to be a Malian jihadist leader affiliated with Al Qaeda.

The latter would have mentioned the death of the two journalists from Radio France Internationale by explaining that the car they were in had broken down and that was the reason why they had been killed. The commando who had kidnapped them had taken the sole decision to kill them. These decisions must still be taken with great caution, explains the lawyer. But they have the merit of going in the direction of the story that we imagine about the circumstances of the case.

The truths are moving forward in this drama but there are still many unanswered questions. Ghislaine Dupont and Claude Verlon would have been monitored, perhaps as soon as they arrived. There is also information in this file that is classified as defense secret and could provide new truths.