Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb Takes Responsibility for Killing French Journalists

Emma Åsberg,

Correspondent (Europe)

 

KIDAL – Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has taken responsibility for the killing of two French journalists in northern Mali on Saturday, November 2.

Ghislaine Dupont and Claude Verlon both worked for the French radio station Radio France Internationale (RFI); Dupont as a journalist and Verlon as a sound technician. Both had considerable experience working in Africa, especially Dupont who covered the region for 27 years.  Dupont and Verlon had just interviewed a senior member of the MNLA, a Tuareg separatist group in Kidal, northern Mali, when they were abducted by gunmen.

Their bodies were found 8 miles outside the desert town less than two hours later. French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said, “They were killed in cold blood [...] one took two bullets and the other three”.

According to a website used by the group, AQIM has taken responsibility for the murders, allegedly to revenge France’s “new crusade”.

200 French troops and 200 peacekeepers from the UN are stationed in Kidal, to carry out the ”protection of civilians under imminent threat of physical violence”, as well as a Malian army base in Kidal.

Alongsida the troops in Kidal and Malian forces, France has around 3000 troops stationed in Mali following an attempt in January to drive out the militants, which was hailed as victorious.

However, a statement by the AQIM said: “The organisation considers that this is the least price that President Francois Hollande and his people will pay for their new crusade.”

Fabius said everything would be done to catch the killers. “The assassins are those we are fighting – the terrorist groups that refuse democracy and elections,” he said, calling the killings “heinous and revolting”.

Questions persist how the killing could take place only five minutes from a large military base, but Fabius said that: ”Security in the area and the surrounding areas, especially for French nationals, will be increased.”

The killing of the journalists comes only a week after four French citizens were freed from the al-Qaeda after three years as prisoners of al-Qaeda militants in the Sahel desert. The former hostages arrived home on Wednesday October 30, greeted by family and fellow countrymen.

Laurent Fabius, France’s foreign minister, said the men “were in shock” after their long time in isolation, but that “They slept well, but on the floor as they are not yet able to sleep on mattresses”.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) calls for measures to be taken by the Malian and French governments, and investigations to be launched to bring justice to Dupont and Verlon and ensure the killers are brought to justice.

1,009 journalists have been killed since 1992, of which 42 were killed in 2013. However, no journalists have been killed in Mali before.

Image Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons