Guy-André Kieffer facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Guy-André Kieffer
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| Born | May 25, 1949 |
| Disappeared | April 16, 2004 (aged 54) Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire |
| Status | Missing for 21 years, 2 months and 18 days |
Guy-André Kieffer was a journalist born on May 25, 1949. He had both French and Canadian citizenship. He worked mostly in West Africa, especially in a country called Côte d'Ivoire. On April 16, 2004, he went missing from a parking lot in Abidjan and has not been seen since. In 2012, some remains were found in the Issia Department in Côte d'Ivoire that might belong to him.
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Guy-André Kieffer's Life and Work
Early Life and Education
Guy-André Kieffer was born and grew up in France. His family lived in the Rhône-Alpes region. He studied law in Montreal, Canada. While he was there, he married a Canadian woman and became a Canadian citizen. They had a son named Sébastien-Cédric. Later, he married Osange Silou-Kieffer, and they had a daughter named Canelle.
Reporting in West Africa
From 1984 to 2002, Kieffer worked for a French financial newspaper called La Tribune. After that, he spent several years working in West Africa. He wrote articles about how governments in Africa were sometimes unfair or dishonest. His articles appeared in different newspapers, including La Tribune and La Lettre du Continent, as well as some local Ivorian newspapers.
Efforts to Find Guy-André Kieffer
Starting the Search
In May 2004, Guy-André Kieffer's family and an organization called Reporters Without Borders started a legal process in France to find out what happened to him. A French judge was put in charge of the case. This judge went to Abidjan and spoke with Michel Legré. Legré was the brother-in-law of the wife of the Ivorian president at the time, Laurent Gbagbo. He was thought to be the last person to see Kieffer.
Investigating the Disappearance
Michel Legré gave the judge a list of important people in Côte d'Ivoire who he thought might know something about Kieffer's disappearance. This list was later printed in some Ivorian newspapers. In 2004, Legré was arrested by the police in Côte d'Ivoire. He was accused of being involved in Kieffer's disappearance and of holding him against his will. He was also accused of spreading false information for naming the people on his list. Legré was let go temporarily in 2005, and since then, no one knows where he is.
The French judge tried to speak with everyone on Legré's list, but not everyone was available. The judge spoke with Legré again in October 2004. In December 2004, the judge asked for Legré to be moved to France for a short time. The judge believed Legré could not speak freely in his Ivorian prison. However, the French government did not help with this request at first. Kieffer's wife, Osange Silou-Kieffer, was very upset about this.
High-Level Discussions
On August 23, 2007, the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, met with Osange Silou-Kieffer in Paris. He told her he was determined to help solve the case. Silou-Kieffer said that the previous French president, Jacques Chirac, had never agreed to meet with her. She asked President Sarkozy to encourage the Ivorian president, Laurent Gbagbo, to let French judges question people in Côte d'Ivoire who might be involved in the case.
In July 2008, Simone Gbagbo, who was the First Lady of Côte d'Ivoire, was asked to be questioned by a French judge. This was part of the investigation into Guy-André Kieffer's disappearance in April 2004. Many people wondered if the Ivorian first family knew something because Michel Legré is Simone Gbagbo's brother-in-law.
French officials also arrested and investigated Jean-Tony Oulaï. He was a former member of the Ivorian Secret Services and was detained in Paris in 2006. Jean-Tony Oulaï's driver, Berte Seydou, and Mr. Kieffer's brother have suggested that Ms. Gbagbo and a former Ivorian minister, Paul-Antoine Bohoun Bouabré, might know what happened to Mr. Kieffer. They also suggested that Oulaï was involved.
