Claude Verlon

Claude Verlon (6 July 1958 – 2 November 2013), a 30-year veteran, French journalist and sound engineer with Radio France Internationale, was killed along with his colleague Ghislaine Dupont in Kidal, Mali while reporting.

Claude Verlon was born in Aubervilliers, Seine Saint Denis, France. He enrolled in the Ecole Nationale Supérieure Louis-Lumière and took night courses while he was working from 1984 until he graduated in 1986.

Claude Verlon was sound engineer at Radio France Internationale from 1982 until his murder in 2013. In 1984, he made his first reports as a field reporter. He contributed to the creation of the first reporting service at RFI. At the time of his death, Verlon was a deputy director of technical services at RFI.

Verlon was passionate about Africa and he had made other missions to this continent while at RFI. In 2005, Bamako, he created a radio studio outside the 23rd summit Africa-France to cover the event. He specialized in technical challenges and he made reports from many international locations, such as Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Mali. As a technician, he established a reputation for broadcasting from the hardest parts in the world. In Bucarest, Romania, he also succeed to organize a studio for the Francophone countries summit in 2006 under technically difficult circumstances.

Bamako

Kidal, Mali

Kidal is in Mali shown here relative to the capital Bamako.

Ghislaine Dupont and colleague Verlon were reporting around Kidal, Mali, when they both were murdered. They had just finished an interview with Ambery Ag Rissa, a spokesperson for the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad, or Tuareg separatists, in the troublesome northeastern town, when four armed men from a political group took them. The two journalists' bodies were found riddled with bullets 12 km from Kidal. None of the suspects have been arrested. The primary suspect is Baye Ag Bakabo, a Tuareg closely related to National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad and Al-Qaeda, because his car were used for Verlon and Dupont's kidnapping, but his whereabouts are unknown. There are still unanswered questions surrounding the circumstances of their death. Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the murder.

Verlon and Dupont were in Mali to cover the Malian presidential elections in 2013. It was the second assignment in Kidal for Verlon since he reported on the first round of Mali's presidential election in July 2013.

Rebellion and Conflict in Mali

Since 2010, the Tuareg group has waged a rebellion in the northeast of Mali with its stated purpose of self-determination. Since 2012, Mali has also faced important political crises, including the rise of an Islamic faction of rebels. Presidential elections were to be held in April 2012 but a military coup d'etat stopped the process on 22 March 2012. One week later, armed group of the rebellion took main cities of north Mali and instituted Islamist law.

French Intervention

French troops started the Operation Serval to fight against terrorism in Mali on 11 January 2013, which was announced by President François Hollande. The goal was to stop the spread of the Islamic group, which had for nine months taken under its control the northern part of the country and were threatening the center and the south. Between 26-30 January, the Islamic position in Gao, which is in the northeast of Mali, was taken by French and Malian forces. They kept going until they reached Timbuktu, which had been abandoned by the jihadists.

In north Gao, operation 'Gustav' was launched on 8 April 2013. The operation was one of the most important since the French engagement in Mali. Almost 1000 soldiers were mobilized, supported by drones, planes and tanks. On 18 June, in Ouagadougou, the Malian authorities and the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad concluded a ceasefire. They agreed on the issue of Malian troops' deployment and the stationing of Tuareg fighters.

More than a year after the coup d' etat on 22 March 2012 and the resignation of president Amadou Toumani Toure, Mali elected a new president. It was the first event covered by Verlon in Mali during France's intervention. In September, Islamist rebels committed more violence in the country. More than 10 Malian and Chadian civil and soldiers, members of United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali, were killed. In response, the international coalition launched the operation "Hydre". More than 1,500 French and Malian soldiers, as well as the UN mission, participated.

In January 2014, the French officially ended Operation Serval and launched Operation Barkhane. French Minister of Defense Jean-Yves Le Drian called Operation Serval a success. It was credited with the elimination of terrorists and recovery of armaments. The new operation was focused on the prevention of violence and spread of terrorism.

A large part of West Africa became dangerous for French because of the rebels. The National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad were based primarily around Adrar, Algeria and Gao and used various guerrilla methods to threaten the security in Mali and the bordering countries forcing a French presence. There are several risks' possibilities that the Malian conflict, at first existing in Niger, Algeria and Mauritania, to be prolonged. In Niger, it is possible that the north security to be degraded. There is a proliferation's risk of jihadists in the region (in this case, every countries of the region are concerned, as far as Dafour. There is also the represal's risk against occidental interest to punish states/countries involved in African-led International Support Mission to Mali. France is obviously, the first country concerned and endorsed about economics, military or politics. Indeed, a militant Islamist website has created a series of posters calling for attacks on France and for the assassination of President François Hollande.

On 5 November, they received a posthumous decoration from Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, president of Mali, in the presence of government officials, RFI representatives, and France's ambassador to Mali.

The United Nations assigned the date of commemoration for the International Day to End Impunity based on the outrage behind the murder of Dupont and Verlon, who were killed on 2 November, as stated in its official resolution.

The Ghislaine Dupont and Claude Verlon Scholarship In September 2014, Radio France Internationale announced the Ghislaine Dupont et Claude Verlon scholarships to honor its deceased journalists. The annual award will be presented to a journalist under 30 and a technician from Africa, and they will have the opportunity to study in Paris. The award was first presented on 2 November 2014 in Bamako, which is the first anniversary of their death.