France – France Info, Oct. 25, 2025
In his book “Prisonnier du désert, 711 jours aux mains d’Al-Qaïda” (Prisoner of the Desert: 711 Days in the Hands of Al-Qaeda), journalist Olivier Dubois recounts the extreme conditions of his captivity in Mali. He received the Frantz di Rippel Literary Prize for this work, awarded by the town of Biot in the Alpes-Maritimes region.
The journalist and former hostage of jihadists in Mali was honored on Friday, October 25, 2025, for his powerful account published in January by Michel Lafon. Kidnapped in April 2021 in Mali by the JNIM, the main jihadist alliance in the Sahel linked to Al-Qaeda, Dubois — who was then a correspondent for Libération and Le Point — shares in his book his daily struggle to survive under extreme conditions during his two years of captivity.
Created in 2022, the award pays tribute to Stéphane Frantz di Rippel, a hotel director assassinated in 2011 in Abidjan after protecting journalists. “On April 4, 2011, armed militiamen close to Laurent Gbagbo entered the hotel and asked Stéphane if he was hosting journalists. He denied it and hid them; for this act of bravery that saved their lives, he was kidnapped along with three other businessmen,” explains the town of Biot on its official website.
