French historians Malika Rahal and Fabrice Riceputi are specialised in researching the events of the 1954-1962 Algerian war of independence, and notably the kidnaps, detention, torture and disappearances of pro-independence militants at the hands of the French army. They lead a project to trace the fate of thousands of people who disappeared during the 1957 Battle of Algiers, when France’s military led a bloody, months-long campaign to dislodge independence fighters and sympathisers in the French colony’s capital. When in Algiers late last year to continue their research, the historians made the chance and revealing discovery of the site of a former colonial farm used by the military to torture and kill detainees. This is their story.
Jacqueline Veyrac, the 80-year-old owner of the five-star Grand Hotel in Cannes and the seafront La Reserve restaurant in nearby Nice, was snatched on the street in 2016 and bundled into the back of a van.
The Chadian security minister said the French civilian, who works for a mining company in Chad where he was kidnapped on Thursday, had been traced to Sudan where 'mixed Chadian and Sudanese forces' are looking for him.
