France’s foreign minister has condemned the murder of two French journalists in Mali as “cold blooded assasination” by “terrorists”<br /><br />Ghislaine Dupont and Claude Dupont who worked for the radio station RFI were abducted after interviewing the head of the MNLA Tuareg separatist group in northern Mali.<br /><br />“It’s a crime against people who were assassinated in cold blood, in odious conditions, but it’s also a crime against the freedom to inform and be informed” French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told a news conference in Paris.<br /><br />The journalists’ bodies were found outside the town of Kidal in northern Mali by a French patrol. One had been shot twice and the other three times.<br /><br />Although no-one has claimed responsibility for their deaths, they are being blamed on extremists.<br /><br />Malian Minister of Defence, Soumeylou Boubèye Maïga said: “There is a radical branch, which has no clear demand, and is trying to hinder this process. This is why we decided that it was important that the international community send a clear and firm signal to this group.”<br /><br />The secular MNLA rebels staged an uprising in northen Mali last year based in Kidal. It led to a coup in the capital Bamako and occupation in the north by al-Qaeda linked rebels.<br /><br />A French-led military intervention pushed back militants, but there are still pockets of insurgents.
