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Agence France-Presse in Paris

Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on Sunday that the two French radio journalists abducted and killed in northern Mali had been shot dead.
Radio France Internationale (RFI) journalist Ghislaine Dupont and sound technician Claude Verlon were “killed in cold blood,” Fabius said. “One took two bullets and the other three.”
President Francois Hollande on Sunday held an emergency meeting on the shock abduction and killing of the journalists.
Foreign Minister Fabius, Justice Minister Christiane Taubira and the head of France’s external intelligence services agency Bernard Bajolet attended the hour-long crisis talks with Hollande to try and shed light on the double murder.

Dupont and Verlon had travelled on Saturday to the northern city of Kidal to interview a spokesman for the Tuareg separatist group the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), and were abducted outside his home, according to their employer.
Dupont, 57, and Verlon, 55, were veteran journalists with long experience in reporting from Africa. Dupont had spent 27 years covering the continent since joining RFI in 1986.
RFI quoted MNLA spokesman Ambery Ag Rhissa as saying he heard a commotion outside and saw the pair being bundled into a beige four wheel-drive vehicle.
Men in turbans and speaking the Tuareg language of Tamashek “ordered Mr Ag Rhissa to get back inside and forced the journalists’ driver to lie down”, RFI said, adding that he had heard Verlon and Dupont resist and protest.
“This was the last time that the journalists were seen alive,” said Marie-Christine Saragosse, CEO of France Media Monde, which owns RFI.
Their bodies were found less than two hours later by a French military patrol about 12 kilometres east of Kidal.
On Tuesday, four Frenchmen were freed three years after being abducted in Niger, which neighbours Mali, by an al-Qaeda offshoot. They had been held in Mali’s vast arid north.
But jubilation over their liberation was tempered by speculation that a huge ransom may have been paid to secure their freedom. Paris has denied paying money to the kidnappers.
Hostage-taking has become a big money-making business by extremist groups in the Sahara region, according to experts.
Hollande expressed “his indignation over this despicable act” while media rights groups have roundly condemned the killing.
“All the teams of RFI and the France Media group are in a state of shock, terribly saddened, indignant and angry,” a statement said.
‘Kidal is still lawless’
There has been a resurgence of violence in Mali, a former French colony in west Africa where Paris sent troops early this year to stop Islamists and Tuareg rebels from marching on the capital Bamako to fill a power vacuum following a coup.
Malian Defence Minister Soumeilou Boubeye Maiga told France 24 television that Kidal was “the only region where the sovereignty of the state is not effective,” adding that the free circulation of arms in the area created a situation “which can benefit all radical elements.”
Kidal residents were meanwhile still reeling from shock on Sunday.
“I am deeply upset. I saw the two journalists an hour before they died. They were happy to be with us,” said Awa Diallo.
“They were very kind,” she added.
Several sources cited by RFI said the kidnappers fled with the reporters towards Tin Essako, a village 115 kilometres to the east.
Kidal, situated more than 1,500 kilometres northeast of Bamako, is the traditional homeland of the Tuareg people and the birthplace of the MNLA’s rebellion.
A French government source said the journalists had asked to be taken there with troops from France’s Operation Serval mission but ended up going with the United Nations MINUSMA peacekeeping force after Serval refused for safety reasons.
The deaths come just three weeks ahead of parliamentary elections which are supposed to mark the completion of Mali’s transition back to democracy following a military coup in March last year.
The MNLA took control of Kidal in February but the Malian authorities finally reclaimed the city after signing a deal with the MNLA on June 18 aimed at reuniting the country and clearing the way for presidential elections to restore democratic rule.
Under the deal, MNLA forces moved into barracks as regular Malian troops were deployed to secure Kidal.
Some 2,000 French troops from an initial deployment of 3,000 will remain on the ground - including around Kidal - until the end of December, with the withdrawal of a further 1,000 to be completed by the end of January next year.


France says abducted journalists in Mali were shot dead

French President Francois Hollande held an emergency meeting on the abduction and killing of the journalists. Photo: AP

Journalists Ghislaine Dupont, left, and Claude Verlon. Photo: AP

French journalists abducted and murdered in northern Mali

This combination of undated photos provided by Radio France International shows journalists Ghislaine Dupont, left, and Claude Verlon. Photo: AP

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President Hollande holds crisis meeting on shock killings 
