Mali: the endless wait for the relatives of journalist Olivier Dubois, kidnapped six months ago – archyde

In Deborah Al-Hawi Al-Masri’s office, planted on the right bank of Bamako, the Malian capital, time stands still. The minutes seem to him to be hours and the hours to whole days, for six months. “I am told to be patient, but I am already at the end of my strength”, slips the 35-year-old Frenchwoman, screwed to her two phones. Since April 8, she has lived in the expectation and the hope of seeing her companion, the French journalist Olivier Dubois, come out of his captivity. That day, in Gao, in northeastern Mali, an area where jihadist katibas have swarmed since the outbreak of the war in 2012, Olivier Dubois was kidnapped, after wanting to interview an intermediate leader of the Support Group for Islam and Muslims (GSIM, affiliated with Al-Qaida).

“Yet he was confident to come back from this trip safe and sound”, sighs Deborah Al-Hawi Al-Masri. She takes as proof their last messages, exchanged when Olivier Dubois boarded the plane, direction Gao, on April 8. A selfie accompanied by a word: “I’ll turn off my phone. Tell Aminata to prepare her meat fritters for my return. “ What happened on April 8 in the city of Askia? The mystery remains. The independent journalist, a fine connoisseur of Malian security dynamics, had prepared his trip well. Has he had too much confidence in his network, which is nevertheless solid and which it has not stopped supplying since its installation in Mali in 2015?

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That year, he and his partner put down their suitcases in Bamako, seduced by “The simplicity of life, the sense of welcome and the human warmth of Malians”, says Deborah Al-Hawi Al-Masri. Olivier Dubois’ first impressions are those of“A country with a rich and complex history”, that he decides to observe for a while, in order to understand it before being able to tell it. “He’s a journalist driven by the desire to scratch the surface to get to the bottom of things. He is now paying the price for this commitment ”, says Célia D’Almeida, former editor-in-chief of Journal of Mali.

Article reserved for our subscribers Read also How journalist Olivier Dubois was kidnapped in Mali

“A demanding journalist”

Olivier Dubois writes his first report for this Malian weekly on November 20, 2015. His account of the attack at the Radisson Blu, a large hotel in Bamako, made the front page of the newspaper. The journalist is then one of the first on the spot, to tell, minute by minute, this attack which claimed the lives of 22 people and which was claimed by Al-Mourabitoune, a small group affiliated with GSIM.

At Journal of Mali, Olivier Dubois rose through the ranks and became the editor-in-chief of the website. “Olivier instigated a desire to do better and more. He is a demanding journalist. Strict without being mean ”, details Boubacar Sidiki Haidara, the current editor-in-chief, who was an intern when Olivier joined the editorial staff. He willingly trains novices but also intimidated some trainees. “Mr. Olivier”, Some nicknamed it, when others sometimes tried to go on tiptoe on closing evenings, for fear of seeing the French ask them for yet another correction or precision on their article.

“Seeker in motion, who likes to discover, all the time, always”, said the reporter to introduce himself on Twitter. In 2018, he left the Malian weekly to become a freelance writer, since then contributing to Africa Point, Release and Young Africa. Célian Macé, journalist at Release, remembers a colleague “Enthusiastic”. “His great curiosity led him to propose original subjects”, he said. Just before disappearing, Olivier Dubois had signed an interview, published on Africa Point on April 3, with the militia leader Dan Na Ambassagou, Youssouf Toloba, accused of having killed numerous Malians and with whom he spent several days in the center of the country.

“He was built during his travels”

“Olivier is someone very open and eager to understand the difference. It adapts to all environments. It is a force for the ordeal he is living today ”, underlines Marc de Boni, one of his closest friends. A bon vivant, a fierce debater, an attentive and modest friend, Olivier Dubois has always been driven by a love for the field. His one-year solo journey in the footsteps of the Silk Road in 2010 gave him a taste for reporting. On his blog, Olivier Dubois recounted his discoveries and his encounters, through the dozen countries he traveled back to back.

“He likes to listen to others and to discover. He was built during his travels ”, says his father, André-Georges Dubois. Born in Créteil, Olivier Dubois, of Martinican origin, grew up in Vaucluse, in a family with separated parents in which “It is rare to say I love you”, as his mother regretted on the airwaves of Radio France internationale (RFI) in a message to his son who was celebrating his 47th birthday on August 6^e birthday. “You are in my heart and I think of you”, she concluded, her throat tight, before a few words from the couple’s two children were broadcast. Those of Angie, 13 years old, daughter of Deborah whom Olivier raises as his own child, and of the youngest of 5 years, who bears the first name of this region of Africa that they love so much: Saël.

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They, like the rest of Olivier Dubois’ relatives, had confirmation of his captivity almost a month after his kidnapping. On May 4, in a video broadcast on social networks, the French journalist claimed, with a serious face, to be captive of the GSIM, becoming the only French hostage in the world. For a month, his relatives had silenced his disappearance, animated by the hope of seeing him return from this interview which would have taken longer than expected.

“I have no more life”

For Deborah Al-Hawi Al-Masri, May 4 was a day in the form of an emotional lift, between the relief of knowing her companion alive and the heartbreak to discover his hostage status. With children, how do you find the right words to explain your captivity? “Like in a superhero movie, Papa was kidnapped very far away and all his friends are mobilizing to free him”, she said to little Sael. “Is Papa being held in a cage?” Do we give him something to eat? “, he asks his mother, who replies that “Daddy eats a lot of kebabs, sleeps in a bed and can even watch TV”. “I reassure him as best I can”, she slips, her gaze blank. “I have no more life, I am only a body”, adds the thirty-something, whose loneliness, in Mali, makes the daily life hellish, despite the great support of the support committee created by relatives and bringing together a hundred of the journalist’s acquaintances.

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An anti-terrorism investigation has been opened in France and advance in the greatest secrecy. While waiting for a potential release, the scenario of which she has already imagined hundreds of times, Deborah Al-Hawi Al-Masri is trying to maintain a normal life for her children. The young woman goes back up a long thread of messages sent to an unknown number on WhatsApp. On this fictitious conversation intended for her companion, which she created the day after her kidnapping, she and her children send videos, voice messages and writings every day to tell about their daily life, the good and the bad times, the lack , their love and support from outside. Opposite, no one answers, even if the children “ think Olivier reads everything ”, tells his companion with misty eyes.

This multimedia logbook, Deborah Al-Hawi Al-Masri imagined it “To maintain the link with Olivier and so that, upon his return, he can review everything from everyday life, not miss anything”, she blurted out, full of hope. A way also to show the French journalist that during his captivity, his relatives never forgot him.

Morgane Le Cam