Death of Baye Ag Bakabo: more than two actors in the assassination of G. Dupont and C. Verlon still alive
Claude Verlon (L) and Ghislaine Dupont in Kidal, Mali, in July 2013. Photo by Fabien Gosset (Radio France) RFI
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Paris confirmed, yesterday Friday, the death on June 5 of Baye Ag Bakabo, alleged leader of the commando who had kidnapped our colleagues from RFI, Ghislaine Dupont and Claude Verlon, on November 2, 2013 in Kidal, in northern Mali.
With his death, only one member of the commando remains alive, and one of the alleged co-organizers of the kidnapping.
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On June 5, it was the French special forces which carried out the operation against Baye ag Bakabo and his men while they were preparing to attack the base of the United Nations Mission (Minusma) in Aguelhok.
But he was not specifically targeted according to Paris.
There were four of them aboard the pick-up used to pick up our colleagues on November 2, 2013 in the middle of Kidal, Mali.
But after the death of
Baye Ag Bakabo
, Mahmoud ag Mohamed Lamine Fall, and Al Hassan Ag Toukassa, only one remains, a certain Hamadi Ag Mohamed.
This civilian is still part of the jihadist movement.
He would even work with Seidane Ag Hitta, the other person still alive suspected of having played a major role in this case.
Seidane, a former National Guard, was in fact evolving in 2013 under the orders of Emir Abdelkrim the Touareg (or al-Targui), the man who claimed responsibility for the assassination of Ghislaine Dupont and Claude Verlon, and who was also
killed in May 2015 by the French army
.
►
To read also
: Assassination of G. Dupont and C. Verlon: Seidane Ag Hitta, the rise of the alleged sponsor
Seidane ag Hitta is a
very influential Tuareg in the jihadist nebula of Kidal
and the probable co-organizer of the kidnapping of our colleagues.
His name is also associated with the
kidnapping of the French Serge Lazarevic and Philippe Verdon
in November 2011. He has since become the lieutenant of Iyad Ag Ghali, the head of the Support Group for Islam and Muslims (GSIM).
A man who therefore counts in the jihadist hierarchy.
Last year, it was in this capacity that he negotiated the jihadist side with Bamako for the release in October 2020 of
Sophie Petronin and Soumaila Cissé
against 200 suspected jihadists, detained in Malian prisons.
Displaying himself in broad daylight with the emissary of Bamako, he drew from it the image of an almost frequentable man.
A statute that risks complicating the work of French justice ...
►
To read also
: in Mali, a hundred jihadists and prisoners released by the authorities
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Mali
Terrorism
Ghislaine Dupont and Claude Verlon
Kidnappings