Mali: a march in support of Olivier Dubois to mark his 100 days of captivity
Audio 01:24
Nearly 70 people walked this Saturday, July 17, 2021 to mark the 100 days of captivity of French journalist Olivier Dubois.
AFP - ANNIE RISEMBERG
Text by: RFI Follow
4 min
To mark his hundred days of captivity and demand the release of Olivier Dubois, nearly 70 people gathered this Saturday, July 18 in Bamako for a sports walk.
A discipline practiced by the independent journalist.
Installed in Mali since 2015, he is the only French hostage known in the world since his kidnapping in Gao on April 8 by the Support Group for Islam and Muslims, a branch of the terrorist group al-Qaeda.
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With our correspondent in Bamako,
Kaourou Magassa
Gathered on the banks of the Niger river, friends, colleagues as well as ordinary Bamakois wanted to chant together their unique slogan:
“
Freedom for Olivier Dubois
”
.
A mobilization at the initiative of a support collective of which Célia d'Almeida, journalist and long-time friend, is the spokesperson.
“
I am torn between the sadness that he is not there and the joy to see that everyone is present.
This positive energy that we share with Olivier when we walk, we will revive it by hoping that these waves reach him and that they can carry him in what he is going through now
”, explains t -it.
Located east of Bamako, the route was chosen because it was the last that Olivier Dubois walked with his family before his captivity.
A distance of 5 km swallowed through fields in good humor and music by the participants dressed in white t-shirts bearing the image of the French journalist or bearing the slogan "#FreeOlivierDubois".
.
"
It is our duty, my duty, to make sure that everyone knows that today there is a French national, a journalist who wanted to do his job and who found himself kidnapped, because that, precisely, he wanted to inform us
”, launches
Deborah Al Hawi Al Marsi
, the mother of two children of Olivier Dubois.
The protest ended after two hours with hugs and words of encouragement.
Everyone in Bamako wants the French journalist to be released quickly so that they can walk alongside him again.
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