DAKAR, Senegal– For an international contributor in Mali, the job appeared like a desire: as Islamic extremists upended the region, Olivier Dubois, a French reporter, safeguarded an unusual meeting with a leader of JNIM, an al-Qaida’s associate in the Sahel.
Or two he believed. En path to the meeting in Gao, north Mali, in April 2021, Dubois, a contributor for Libération and Jeune Afrique magazines, was abducted.
He invested 711 days in desert bondage, resting chained to a tree, consuming dried out goat meat and outlining his getaway. Virtually 2 years after his launch, he states his experience in a publication launched Thursday in France that attracts greatly on notes Dubois covertly maintained throughout his bondage, composed on any kind of scrap of paper he might locate.
” Among the major aspects that assisted me stand up to and make it through was informing myself that I am a reporter,” Dubois informed The Associated Press in the very first meeting for English-language media given that his launch. “Allow’s remain to collect details, allow’s remain to ask concerns and act I’m functioning.”
The Sahel nations of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger recently have actually been overthrown by armed forces stroke of genius and are currently led by armed forces juntas, which battle against rising extremist violence and have actually made kidnappings a foundation of their method in the area.
Upon his launch, French media published an investigation exposing that Dubois’s fixer had actually dealt with French knowledge, that utilized him to situate the extremist leader he was attempting to meeting.
Dubois informed the AP he recognized his task was dangerous, yet that he trusted his fixer excessive and disregarded the indication.
” I’m unsure,” he claimed of the scenarios bordering his kidnapping. “I believe it was a dishonesty. However the intention for the dishonesty is not yet clear. I have actually not talked to my fixer given that I have actually been launched.”
Kidnappings have actually escalated in the Sahel recently, according to information from the U.S.-based Armed Problem Place && Occasion Information Job, or ACLED.
JNIM, the Sahelian branch of al-Qaida, has actually been in charge of a lot of the 1,468 kidnappings in Sahel and Benin in between 2017 and 2025, according to the ACLED. The team depends on ransom cash to money their procedures and on the worry they infuse on regional populaces to maintain them in check.
Dubois remembered being informed he would certainly be “launched rapidly” if his family members and federal government did as advised.
Dubois was launched on March 20, 2023, in Agadez, Niger, yet information of his launch, consisting of whether a ransom money was paid, stay concealed.
French Head Of State Emmanuel Macron required to the social system X to compose “Olivier Dubois is complimentary,” yet he did not specify on the problems of the launch.
Talking With the AP, Dubois claimed that he did not recognize the information either, yet he remembered being informed by the rebels that ransoms differed by citizenship. As a French resident, he deserved 10 million euros, he was informed. A South African deserved 50 million.
Having actually covered various captive tales in the area, Dubois recognized that also if released, his experience might be extensive.
In order to remain rational, he came to be consumed with outlining a retreat. However after the 4th not successful effort, his captors organized a simulated implementation and intimidated to eliminate him if he attempted once more. So rather, Dubois began reviewing the Quran.
Reviewing the divine publication of Islam offered a twin function: it inhabited his mind, and assisted him recognize his captors much better, have the ability to go over with them and construct a partnership, so they might treat him a lot more as a person and much less as a confidential captive.
All of a sudden, it likewise placed him on a much more spiritual course.
” I am a previous atheist, after that an agnostic that believed I would certainly quit there,” he claimed. “Reviewing the Quran made me wish to review various other spiritual messages. This bondage has actually been the start of a trip that will certainly possibly lead me to God– or otherwise.”
Since his publication– “Prisonnier du désert, 711 jours aux keys d’Al-Qaïda,” which converts in English right into “Detainee of the desert, 711 days in the hands of Al-Qaida”– is out, Dubois claimed he was wishing he prepared to return to journalism and proceed.
However the experience still haunts him.
” It hurt work,” he claimed of the composing procedure. “The very first response after completing it was to distance myself from the tale, really hoping time will certainly pass and, possibly, every one of that will certainly lag me. However I do not actually recognize if that’s feasible.”
