Hundreds of people rallied in France and Mali on Tuesday, AFP journalists saw, demanding the release of a French journalist who has been kidnapped by jihadists in Mali. Olivier Dubois, who worked with several French media, said in a hostage video that the Group to Support Islam and Muslims (GSIM), the largest jihadist alliance in the Sahel, abducted him on April 8. Mali has been struggling to contain an Islamist insurgency which first broke out in the north of the country in 2012 before spreading to the centre and neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger. Thousands of people have been killed and hundreds of thousands have fled their homes, while the economic impact on one of the world's poorest countries has been devastating. Abductions have been frequent, both of Malians and foreigners. On Tuesday, colleagues and friends of Dubois gathered at the Maison de la Presse (House of the Press) in Mali's capital Bamako. "I am very moved," said Deborah Al Hawi Al Masri, Dubois' former partner and the mother of his two children. "Everyone has a common goal, that Olivier returns to his children," she added. Tiebile Drame, a former Malian foreign minister who was at the event, stressed the need to "step up the campaign" for the journalist's release. About a hundred people also gathered in a twin rally in Paris, including members of the media and the watchdog Reporters Without Borders. Dubois, a 46-year-old reporter who has been living and working in Mali since 2015, is the only known French hostage in the world. France's national anti-terror prosecutor has opened an investigation into his case. jnb-ah/siu/mrb/ayv/eml/ri