Journalists Killed in 2013 - Motive Confirmed: Ghislaine Dupont

Radio France Internationale
November 1, 2013, in Kidal, Mali

Dupont and Claude Verlon, a sound technician for RFI, were abducted and killed shortly afterward in the remote northeastern Saharan town of Kidal.

Gunmen seized the journalists as they left the home of Ambery Ag Rissa, a leader of the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), a group of ethnic Tuareg separatists based in Kidal, according to news reports. Dupont had conducted an interview with the official at around 1 p.m. local time, and was preparing to board her vehicle when she was kidnapped at gunpoint, the reports said.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said in a press conference on November 2, 2013, that the bullet-ridden bodies of the journalists were found next to their vehicle outside the town.

Dupont, 57, was on her second assignment in Kidal since reporting on the first round of Mali's presidential election in July, according to news reports. She covered African affairs for RFI for over 25 years, RFI reported. She reported on the conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea, as well as civil wars in Angola, Sierra Leone, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, from where she was expelled in 2006 in retaliation for her reporting. Dupont was affectionately called "Gigi" by her colleagues and had been promoted to the station's editorial board in September, according to RFI.

The group Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb claimed responsibility for the slayings, according to news reports. On November 5, 2013, RFI reported that French and Malian security forces were hunting a four-member team responsible for the kidnapping, and had detained 35 people for questioning.