What will French Minister of the Armed Forces Catherine Vautrin decide in the coming days on the case of the kidnapping followed by the murder of Ghislaine Dupont and Claude Verlon, in Kidal, on November 2, 2013? While the protagonists of the crime, all close to Iyad Ag Ghali, the leader of the Malian jihadists, covet power in Bamako more than ever, will the secrets of the French army be revealed, as promised several times by Emmanuel Macron to the relatives of the two RFI journalists?
By Nathalie Prévost
History stutters in the north of Mali, but, for France, with almost reversed fronts. Because if, in 2013, Serval was tracking down the jihadists with the help of the Tuareg independentists, thirteen years later, in 2026, we have the impression that Paris, still allied with the latter, finds itself, de facto, in the camp of Iyad Ag Ghali, the leader of the Al Qaeda franchise in the Sahel, who was, for years, his public enemy number one.
In Paris, justice moves at a different pace, less hectic than that of the changing alliances of Tuareg fighters. Judge Valéry Muller, who inherited the investigation into the murder of Ghislaine Dupont and Claude Verlon at the anti-terrorism center, officially submitted a request on January 12 « à fin de communication d’éléments classifiés ou non classifiés ». The Minister of the Armed Forces and Veterans promised to make her decision in mid-May.
The lifeless bodies of the two journalists, shot dead, were discovered by a Serval patrol 12 km from Kidal, the Tuareg stronghold in the north, not far from the pick-up – with its engine broken – in which they had been taken an hour before dying. They were in Kidal to produce a report on “reconciliation” in Azawad (name given to northern Mali by the independentists), a few months after the reconquest successfully carried out by the French army.
The third magistrate to be entrusted with the case, Valéry Muller attempts to go further in light of the slow but steady progress made over the years, which has made it possible to reconstruct a large part of the criminal scenario.
Sponsors and members of the commando
Marc Trevidic and Jean-Marc Herbaut had already sent requests for declassification in 2015, 2016 and 2022, which were partially granted. In addition, investigations into the telephone enabled the identification of certain key players in the crime and revealed that the journalists had been monitored throughout their stay in Kidal. We now know with certainty the identity of the four members of the commando, certain accomplices and the sponsors.
Abdelkrim Taleb, whose real name is Hamada Ag Mama, emir of the Al Ansar katiba and nephew of Iyad Ag Ghali, is the one who transmitted the order of the kidnapping to Zeidane Ag Hita, who would succeed him at the head of the katiba after his death, on May 17, 2015, in a strike French. Abdelkrim Taleb is, moreover, the signatory of the kidnapping demand in the name of AQIM (Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb), on November 6, 2013. Zeidane Ag Hita relayed the instructions of his leader to the commando, recruited by him and placed under his orders. Ties of friendship and family ties attach him to Abdelkrim Taleb, on the one hand, and to the commando, on the other.
It was his brother, Sheikh Ag Hita, who recruited the driver of the SUV used for the kidnapping, Baye Ag Bakabo, in prison. The latter was the owner of the pick-up. He served in the ranks of Ansar Dine (the jihadist group created by Iyad Ag Ghali) then returned to Kidal in March 2013, claiming to be a jihadist. He was then questioned by the French DGSE. The following month, “the State of Azawad” issued him a safe-conduct found in the broken down vehicle. Until his death on June 5, 2021, neutralized by the French army, Baye Ag Bakabo continued to be active in armed jihadist groups as group leader under the orders of Zeidane Ag Hita, now lieutenant of Iyad Ag Ghali.
The accomplices of the detection and the escape
Among those carrying out the kidnapping, justice identified Mahmoud Ag Mohamed Lamine Fall, a former gendarme joined Ansar Dine, who became a member of the Islamic police of Kidal and the katiba commanded by Zeidane Ag Hita. He died in a car accident in 2016. Another member of the commando, Al Hassan Ag Tokassa, saw his camp, located on the kidnappers’ probable escape route, invaded by the Serval force the day after the assassination. Ag Tokassa died, killed by the French army, on January 29, 2016, in the company of a comrade whose genetic profile appears on the links surrounding the left wrist of Claude Verlon (Akli Ag Sagdoun).
Hamadi Ag Mohamed, the last member of the commando identified, was part of a group of 3 men who arrived on foot and thirsty on the evening of the murder in a camp located 17 km from the scene of the assassination. He is the only survivor of the commando, still active in northern Mali, in a group affiliated with Iyad Ag Ghali.
Another man is suspected of having informed the commando just before the kidnapping was carried out. This is Hamadi Ag Ma, cousin of Zeidane Ag Hita and former bodyguard of Bilal Ag Cherif, the leader of the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA, Tuareg independence movement), who died in clashes with the Tuareg self-defense group GATIA in 2017.
The troubled game of Cheikh Ag Haussa
Finally, investigators and civil parties are increasingly wondering about the role played by Cheikh Ag Haoussa, the strong man of Kidal at the time of the assassination, a very troubled character, friend of Iyad Ag Ghali since the 1980s. He had returned to Kidal, like many others, thanks to the creation of the High Council for the Unity of Azawad (HCUA) – a movement created to “whiten” the Tuareg jihadist fighters – of which he was the chief of staff. Ghislaine Dupont interviewed him two days before his death.
Seen on the morning of the kidnapping in the company of Baye Ag Bakabo then seen near Kidal airport, shortly after the kidnapping, by a member of the French special forces, Cheikh Ag Haoussa died in a car bomb attack on October 8, 2016 in Kidal.
The questions that persist
Through his request, the investigating judge seeks to update the information already in his possession on two direct protagonists still alive: Zeidane Ag Hita (direct leader) and Hamadi Ag Mohamed (member of the commando). Indeed, Zeidane ag Hita, who recently photographed himself at the Tessalit camp abandoned by the Malian army, has become an important leader, negotiator in the release of hostages and right-hand man of Iyad Ag Ghali. HAS
The magistrate is also seeking to know more about two telephone lines in Italy and Algeria, very active before and during the kidnapping of the RFI team. He also requested the communication of “all information” on the members of the commando, their accomplices and their sponsors, on the role played by Ansar Dine, the armed group of Iyad Ag Ghali, in the operation claimed by the latter’s cousin. Finally, he demands once again, at the request of the civil parties, any intervention report written by the special forces on the crime and any document reporting a discussion between a sponsor and one of the members of the commando to accuse him of having “ gâché la marchandise ». This sentence had been quoted publicly by François Hollande, the President of the Republic at the time of the facts, who then retracted during his hearing by the judge.
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