This French journalist who works in Mali appeared in an anonymous video recording broadcast on social networks yesterday,

, indicating that he was kidnapped in Mali in early April. The French Foreign Ministry confirmed the kidnapping. (…) In this video,

Sahara Media, Olivier Dubois, 46, declared to have been kidnapped on April 8 in the region of Gao by the Support Group for Islam and Muslims, affiliated with Al-Qaeda in the Maghreb Islamic, led by Iyad Ag Ghali. The reporter was dressed in traditional clothes, his beard neatly trimmed, and spoke in a resolute voice looking at the camera. But,

, the movements of his fingers and his leg reflected a little tension.

preliminary investigation for kidnapping in an organized gang and in connection with a terrorist enterprise had been opened in France by the National Anti-Terrorist Prosecutor's Office

Olivier Dubois, hostage journalist

Working in the region involves risks,

Liberation.

All journalists specializing in the Sahel know this.

Olivier is perfectly aware of this.

At the end of March, he proposed to Liberation to interview a head of GSIM in person in Gao, in northern Mali.

He has solid contacts in the jihadist sphere.

Some of them vouched for his safety.

The man he wanted to meet, Abdallah Ag Albakaye, is a lieutenant of the armed Islamist organization, an intermediary in the hierarchy, active in the Talataye area.

Liberation

when did the plan go off the rails? Was Olivier lured into a trap set by Ag Albakaye? Or has his presence stirred up the lust of another jihadist leader? Very quickly, his family, his friends, the newspaper, Reporters Without Borders, chose to remain silent about his disappearance. Perhaps, for logistical reasons, his interview had been delayed, one would believe. Perhaps he was still the host of the jihadists, and not their prisoner. Any media noise, any untimely action by Barkhane risked endangering his life. Each day, each week that passed, however, removed the hypothesis of an "invitation" granted. Yesterday's video suddenly shatters that hope. And burst the fragile bubble of silence that surrounded him.

This hostage-taking shows how much this Sahelo-Saharan strip is 'mediaphage',"

.

"

From Ghislaine Dupont and Claude Verlon from RFI, kidnapped and then executed in November 2013 in Kidal, to Olivier Dubois, including the Spanish and Irish journalists murdered on April 26 in Pama in eastern Burkina Faso, there are many of them, our colleagues in to have been kidnapped or killed in this "Sahelistan" of all dangers.

According to Reporters Without Borders, "this region is almost a black information hole today", where those who put their lives at the risk of stalking information disappear.

And we may very well know the realities on the ground and have carefully organized, like Dubois, his media expedition, we always run the risk of being engulfed by the quicksand of the Sahelo-Saharan strip, where danger lurks behind each dune. . 

can journalists and should they turn away from the martyrdom experienced by the populations in these areas?"

In the name of the precautionary principle, should we no longer be interested in the bloody assaults that the jihadist hordes impose on those who have the misfortune of finding themselves in these localities of lawlessness?

If we give in to this ambient fear, how will public opinion be informed of the numerous abuses and abuses in which the regular armies and international troops who claim to fight terrorism are engaged as well?

Abdicating, Ledjely

, is not a solution