Françoise Grandclaude, the partner of Hervé Gourdel (PH /DR)
KABYLIA (Siwel)
The family of Hervé Gourdel traveled in the utmost discretion, last Sunday in Kabylia, where the French climber was kidnapped and murdered by Algerian Islamists.
His widow and his 16 year old son went to meditate in the Djurdjura mountains near the place where the climber was kidnapped and beheaded in September 2014 by an Algerian jihadist group affiliated with the Islamic state.
The companion of the 55 years old mountain guide had promised that she would one day visit the place where Hervé intented to climb. “We need to see the latest landscapes Hervé saw …” she said last October on France Inter radio.
Seven months later, her wish has been fulfilled, her family was able to pay their last respects to him, thanks to the discretion of the citizens of Kabylia and without informing the Algerian authorities.
The Algerian state which, since independence, has Kabylia in the line of fire, has continued in recent years to send its “terrorists” to destabilize the region, sow terror among the Kabyle population, secular and strong supporter of freedom and democracy who fight for self-determination against the Arab-Islamist government in power in Algiers.