When he got off the plane, Olivier Dubois appeared smiling and visibly moved, dressed in an open white shirt and beige pants.
The release of the journalist is a “huge relief” after 711 days spent in Mali in captivity, “the longest for a French journalist held hostage since the war in Lebanon”, welcomed Reporters Without Borders.
“We had had reassuring news on several occasions in recent months, and again very recently: he seemed in good shape, but the length of his captivity worried us”, commented the secretary general of RSF, Christophe Deloire, questioned by the AFP.
Note that the American hostage Jeffery Woodke, kidnapped in 2016 in Niger, has also been released, indicates AFP. A Christian humanitarian who came to the aid of nomadic populations with an NGO in Abalak in Niger, Jeffery Woodke was kidnapped on October 14, 2016 by jihadist groups and taken to Mali according to Nigerien security sources.