by Delphine TOUITOU with Camille LAFFONT in Niamey
French journalist Olivier Dubois, 48, made an emotional return home on Tuesday following nearly two years in captivity in the Sahel, greeted by his family and President Emmanuel Macron at an airport near Paris.
Dubois and 61-year-old US aid worker Jeffery Woodke, who was seized in southwest Niger in October 2016 — arrived in the Niger capital, Niamey, on Monday after being freed.
Dubois stepped off the plane at Villacoublay air base, near Paris, on Tuesday and went straight to hug family members waiting for him on the tarmac.
Macron also embraced him in front of the cameras, in a brief break from the domestic political turmoil over a divisive pensions reform.
“Yesterday, I couldn’t believe it when I landed at the airport (in Niamey), but it’s starting to sink in,” Dubois told AFP.
“I was not mistreated, nor humiliated or hit,” he added.
“There were some tough moments, but not physically tough.”
– Release details murky –
He said in a video released by his captors that he was taken by the Support Group for Islam and Muslims (GSIM), the main jihadist alliance in the Sahel, which is linked to Al-Qaeda.
“I want to pay tribute to Niger for its skills in this delicate mission and pay tribute to France, to all those who have helped me to be here today,” he said Monday.
Dubois had lived in Mali since 2015 and was freelancing for French daily Liberation when he was seized on April 8, 2021.
Details of the two men’s release remain unclear, although Woodke on Monday thanked the “Nigerien, American and French governments”, telling journalists: “Vive la France.”
Niger Interior Minister Hamadou Souley, who was at Niamey airport, said: “The hostages were picked up safe and sound by the Nigerien authorities before being handed over to the French and American authorities.”
The head of watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF), Christophe Deloire, said Tuesday he did not know why Dubois had been freed “or why now”.
Dubois is believed to have been the last French citizen held hostage by a non-state actor following the release in Mali of aid worker Sophie Petronin in 2020.
French authorities have long denied paying ransoms for kidnapped citizens.
However, former president Francois Hollande admitted in a book published in 2016 that money had been exchanged for several journalists kidnapped in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“Hostage-taking is 95 percent financially motivated. You have to pay,” Alain Chouet, a former French intelligence officer, told AFP, adding that prices had soared in the past 25 years.
“There was a time when we could get by for a million dollars or euros. Now we are rather close to ten.”
– ‘Sensitive diplomatic conversations’ –
US State Department spokesman Vedant Patel did not want to be drawn on the “sensitive diplomatic conversations” involved in Woodke’s release.
At Niamey airport on Monday, Woodke was at Dubois’ side, leaning on a stick.
Woodke was seized at gunpoint from his home in Abalak in the Tahoua region of southwestern Niger.
The 61-year-old had served as a missionary and humanitarian aid worker in Niger for 32 years, according to a supporters’ website.
He was said to speak the local language Tamasheq fluently, as well as Fula and Arabic.
US President Joe Biden welcomed the freeing of Woodke and thanked the government of Niger, calling it “a critical partner in helping to secure his release.”
– Other Western hostages –
The Sahel has been ravaged by a jihadist campaign that began in northern Mali in 2012.
In 2015, the insurgency swept into neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger.
The violence has killed thousands of people, displaced millions from their homes and increased risks for journalists and humanitarian workers.
Two International Committee of the Red Cross employees kidnapped in Mali earlier this year were released on Sunday.
At least six other Western hostages are believed to still be held in the Sahel.
Romanian mineworker Iulian Ghergut and elderly Australian surgeon Arthur Kenneth Elliott were both abducted in Burkina Faso, in 2015 and 2016 respectively.
Armed men kidnapped an Italian couple and their child as well as a Togolese national in southeastern Mali in May 2022. Italian media blamed the abductions on jihadists.
German priest Hans-Joachim Lohre is believed to have been held hostage in Mali since late 2022.
Niger is an important Western ally in the troubled region, hosting a French military base and a US drone base.
© Agence France-Presse
