CNN has been unable to independently verify the video and it was not clear when it was filmed.
In the 21-second clip, Olivier Dubois identifies himself before saying he was kidnapped in Gao, a town in central Mali, on April 8 by a local Islamist group affiliated al Qaeda that is known as JNIM, an acronym for the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims.
“I’m speaking to my family, my friends and the French authorities for them to do everything in their power to free me,” he said, sitting barefoot in what appears to be a tent.
Both the French foreign ministry and the French government…
