How were French and American hostages Olivier Dubois and Jeffery Woodke released after years in the hands of jihadists in the Sahel?
Her release, like others before it, is shrouded in deep mystery. A few answers.
How did the release go?
On returning to France on Tuesday, journalist Olivier Dubois, who was abducted in northern Mali in 2021 by the al-Qaeda-affiliated support group for Islam and Muslims (GSIM), told AFP that he was arrested by his guardians on March 7 his kidnapping was informed next release. On the 16th, men took him on a motorcycle and then in a van to the Kidal region, still in Mali. He was accompanied there by Jeffery Woodke, a humanitarian who was kidnapped in Niger in 2016.
According to the Liberation newspaper, the two men were then transported by several vans, crossed the border into Niger before being picked up by a military jumbo jet and then taken to Niamey airport.
Photo: AFP
Olivier Dubois, in a video broadcast during his detention.
How was this release possible?
“I don’t know at all,” said Olivier Dubois. These publications are traditionally subject to the greatest secrecy. “I know that sometimes our discretion is not understood. However, it is a prerequisite for efficiency,” said French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna.
The role of Niger, an ally of France and the United States, was highlighted. In addition to the two former hostages, the Nigerien Minister of the Interior, Hamadou Souley, also thanked “the French and American partners for their constant cooperation” in this file on Monday. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in Niamey in mid-March.
The months of fighting in the region between GSIM and the organization Islamic State (IS) may have favored the process. The hostages “can be a burden” for groups who are constantly on the move, fleeing anywhere, said Ousmane Diallo, Amnesty International’s Sahel researcher.
“In this context of competition with another armed group, but probably also because of the reduction in negotiation channels, the release of these hostages may be appropriate,” he adds.
Rivalry can also create a need for money.
🟡 French journalist Olivier Dubois has been released after almost two years in captivity. He was kidnapped by a jihadist group in Gao, Mali, on April 8, 2021. He was released along with another hostage, an American humanitarian.
📺 #franceinfo channel 27 pic.twitter.com/WnPwqPOFqV
— Franceinfo plus (@franceinfoplus) March 21, 2023
Was there a ransom or leverage?
French authorities have always denied paying any ransom. However, President François Hollande (2012-2017) acknowledged in a book published in 2016 that ransoms had been paid for journalist Florence Aubenas kidnapped in Iraq or for Hervé Ghesquière and Stéphane Taponier in Afghanistan.
In 2020, the release of French Sophie Pétronin and two Italians at the same time as Malian political figures in Mali had led to the release of 200 prisoners, including a certain number of jihadists.
In the case of Olivier Dubois and Jeffery Woodke, “there was obviously no release of prisoners. But the possibility that there was a financial transaction is there,” Ousmane Diallo said.
“95% of the time the kidnapping is malicious, you have to pay,” says Alain Chouet, former head of the French secret service. “Prices have gone up a lot in the last 20 to 25 years,” he says, referring to current figures of around $10 million, up from $1 million before.
Photo: AFP
Jeffrey Woodke in a video released while in custody.
What role did Niger and Mali play?
Niamey has remained officially discreet on the matter. But “it was Niger who directed the operation from start to finish with the personal involvement of President Mohamed Bazoum, a Nigerian official told AFP on condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of the issue. .
Paris highlighted the work of the Nigerian partner. Another Nigerian official explains that this is because “the French don’t want to show that they are negotiating with jihadist groups”.
The leaders in power in Mali, who have severed most ties with France, have maintained silence. However, the operation apparently took place partly on national territory, of which large areas on the border with Niger are beyond their control.
Which intermediaries? These releases depend on intermediaries able to reach out to the armed groups.
The GSIM is headed by Iyad Ag Ghaly, a Tuareg chief originally from Kidal and a member of the Ifoghas tribe. All eyes are on this community, present in Mali and Niger.
A Nigerian source familiar with such negotiations has evoked the role of Mohamed Akotey, a major Ifogha figure in the 2010 release of French groups Areva and Satom’s collaborators kidnapped in Niger in 2010.
“In my time in Niger we had multiple channels of negotiation with different groups, clans and tribes through a certain number of local businessmen who obviously are not disinterested. These are networks that we maintain in Niger, in Chad and elsewhere,” says Alain Chouet.
The Tuareg Ahmada Ag Bibi, himself a former member of a jihadist group but also multiple deputy, mediator in the release of hostages in Mali in 2020, told an AFP correspondent that he had taken part in the last negotiations.