PARIS/BAMAKO: France said yesterday that two French journalists found dead in the northern Mali region of Kidal had been “coldly assassinated” by militants and vowed to step up security measures in the area.
Radio journalists Claude Verlon and Ghislaine Dupont were abducted after interviewing a member of the MNLA Tuareg separatist group in northern Mali.
Their bodies were found on Saturday by a French patrol 12km outside Kidal, the birthplace of a Tuareg uprising last year that plunged Mali into chaos, leading to a coup in the capital Bamako and the occupation of the northern half of the country by militants linked to al Qaeda.
Full details of why the journalists were killed and who carried out the attack were not immediately clear, but Fabius put the blame firmly on militants operating in the region.
“The assassins are those that we are fighting, the terrorist groups that refuse democracy and elections,” Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said, calling the killings “heinous and revolting”.
Fabius said one of the journalists had been shot twice, and the other three times. He said French forces had tried to find the hostage takers, but to no avail.
Paris launched air strikes and sent thousands of soldiers into Mali at the start of the year to drive back Al Qaeda-linked rebels it said could turn the West African country into a base for international attacks.
Although Malian, UN and French troops are stationed in Kidal, none are heavily deployed. The Malian army’s contingent is generally symbolic and soldiers are confined to their base.
There are some 200 UN peacekeepers (MINUSMA)who are officially in control of security and France also has about 200 troops, though their operations in the region have focussed on the Adrar des Ifoghas mountains to the north, which served for years as a hideout for militants.
“Security in the area and the surrounding areas will be increased,” Fabius said, after a specially convened meeting between President Francois Hollande and key cabinet ministers. He did not elaborate.
Mali government spokesman Mahamane Baby echoes those comments saying President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita and Hollande had agreed that the status quo could not remain during a telephone call late on Saturday.
“The two heads of state agreed that the situation in Kidal was unacceptable and that a change was necessary to ensure the security of all Malians and foreigners present there,” he said.
Reuters
