Since the release six months ago of humanitarian aid Sophie Pétronin, kidnapped by jihadists four years earlier in Mali, France had no more hostages in the world.

The kidnapping of journalist Olivier Dubois on April 8 in Gao, by the Support Group for Islam and Muslims (GSIM), a local branch of Al-Qaeda, revives the issue of French security in the Sahel region, where France intervenes militarily within the framework of a coalition of five countries of the Sahel, to fight against armed Islamists.

Back on the last releases of French hostages in the Sahel and the most unfortunate outcomes. 

Sophie Pétronin, four years in captivity 

After more than 1,380 days of detention, Sophie Pétronin, 75, was released in October 2020. The humanitarian led a small Franco-Swiss NGO helping children suffering from malnutrition. Like Olivier Dubois, she had been kidnapped in Gao (in 2016) and was held by GSIM, linked to Al-Qaeda.

The Frenchwoman was released at the same time as a priest, an Italian and the Malian politician Soumaïla Cissé. His release coincided with the release of several dozen prisoners whom Malian officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, presented as jihadists, but whose identity and profile were not disclosed. . The Malian government has never confirmed the payment of a ransom, in addition to the release of 200 prisoners, including a number of jihadists, against the freedom of these four hostages.

Sophie Pétronin's son, Sébastien Chadaud-Pétronin, who regularly challenged the French authorities, estimated, in May 2019, that his mother was "sacrificed" by the refusal, according to him, of France to negotiate with the kidnappers.

"The will [of Emmanuel Macron] is not enough, now we need action," he said at the time on Franceinfo.

Her mother had appeared in videos released in 2017 and 2018 by GSIM.

The last video in which she appeared was received in mid-June 2018. It showed her very tired, her face emaciated, calling on French President Emmanuel Macron, believing that the Head of State had "forgotten" her.

Patrick Picque and Laurent Lassimouillas released, but two French soldiers killed

Patrick Picque, 51, and Laurent Lassimouillas, 46, two teachers kidnapped on May 1, 2019 during a tourist stay in Benin, a country hitherto spared from insecurity in West Africa, were released ten days later in northern Burkina Faso where they had been transferred.

However, their tour guide was executed.

The release of these two Frenchmen came at the cost of the lives of two French soldiers, Cédric de Pierrepont and Alain Bertoncella, petty officers in the special operations command.

The military operation was the result of collaboration between the Barkhane force, the involvement of Burkinabè forces and American intelligence support.

During their kidnapping, Patrick Picque and Laurent Lassimouillas, were in the Pendjari natural park located on the border with Burkina Faso and Niger.

Benin was then considered an island of stability in West Africa, but the parks are very difficult areas to monitor, despite a strengthening of teams, trained militarily.

The area had recently been deprecated by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs when the two tourists ventured there. 

Serge Lazarevic, released after three years of detention

After three years of captivity in the Sahel, in the hands of Aqmi, Serge Lazarevic was released on December 9, 2014. This geologist was kidnapped by a group of armed men in a hotel in Hombori, Mali, on November 24, 2011, with another Frenchman, Philippe Verdon.

Both were staying in the center of the country on business.

Philippe Verdon, presented by Aqmi as a spy, was executed in retaliation for the French military intervention in Mali in May 2013.

Before his release, Serge Lazarevic appeared emaciated in a video broadcast on November 17, 2014 by a site linked to Aqmi.

The hostage called François Hollande for help, saying he was "very sick".

Sitting in what looks like a 4x4, wearing a long beard and dressed entirely in black, Serge Lazarevic spoke in a hesitant and choppy voice.

As with other hostage-taking of French people in the region, the question of the consideration for his release had caused controversy.

The then Malian Minister of Justice, Mohamed Ali Bathily, confirmed on France 24, in December 2014, that Serge Lazarevic had been released against four jihadists, at least two of whom were involved in previous kidnappings of French people in the Sahel. .

Information that the Elysee had then refused to confirm or deny.

For Paris, the release of Serge Lazarevic was the fruit of a "personal commitment" by the presidents of Mali and Niger, which had been followed by "very long months" of "discussions".

The sad fate of Gilberto Rodrigues Leal

This retiree from a small village in Lozère, keen on travel, was driving his camper van from Mauritania when he was kidnapped, on November 20, 2012, by armed men in western Mali, near the borders with Senegal and Mauritania.

His death was announced in April 2014 by the Movement for Uniqueness and Jihad in West Africa (Mujao), an al-Qaeda ally in the Islamic Maghreb (Aqmi).

Gilberto Rodrigues Leal, a former specialized educator, loved to survey the world in his vehicle that he had completely fitted out. 

France had hardly heard from the hostage after his kidnapping. Only a video dating from November 26, 2013 and broadcast by the kidnappers, proved that Gilberto Rodrigues Leal was alive and well. The French called on the French government to "respond quickly to the demands of the Mujao". And then, nothing more. The hostage's family, who had always been very discreet and had rarely spoken to the media, tried to keep hope.

Above all, she recalled that Gilberto, a retired former specialist educator, was not a hothead.

A few months before his execution, his family had spoken: "My brother was kidnapped in an area which was not classified as dangerous by the French authorities", explained David Rodrigues Leal.

"It was not a far-fetched", had also specified his sister.

As in the previous year, he left alone to join Togo "with his arms loaded with school supplies and dressings for the children".

Ongoing investigation into the assassination of Ghislaine Dupont and Claude Verlon

Another unfortunate outcome, the two RFI journalists, Ghislaine Dupont, 57, and Claude Verlon, 55, were kidnapped during a report, then killed on November 2, 2013 near Kidal, Mali.

Their assassination came just a few months after the French operation Serval intended to drive out the jihadists who occupied northern Mali and threatened to march on Bamako.

A judicial investigation is underway into the unclear circumstances of their kidnapping and murder.

In this affair, the relatives of the two journalists formed an association - the Friends of Ghislaine Dupont and Claude Verlon - to take legal action.

They demand the lifting of "defense secrecy", which they believe hinders the investigation into the death of these journalists.

In a letter dated mid-January and made public at the beginning of April, the former UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, Agnès Callamard, had expressed her "deep concern about the lack of justice" in the investigation in France on this double assassination.

She deplored in particular the absence of an international arrest warrant despite the identification of suspects "for several years".

But also "the lack of cooperation on the part of the French military authorities - within the framework of the protection of defense secrets - and the Malian authorities".

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