Claude Verlon

Claude Verlon (6 July 1958 – 2 November 2013), a 30-year veteran French journalist and sound engineer with Radio France Internationale, was killed along with his colleague Ghislaine Dupont in Kidal, Mali while reporting.

Personal information Claude Verlon was born in Aubervilliers, Seine Saint Denis, France. He enrolled at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure Louis-Lumière and took night courses while he was working from 1984 until he graduated in 1986.

Career Claude Verlon was sound engineer at Radio France Internationale from 1982 until his murder in 2013. In 1984, he made his first reports as a field reporter. He contributed to the creation of the first reporting service at RFI. At the time of his death, Verlon was a deputy director of technical services at RFI. There are still unanswered questions surrounding the circumstances of their death. Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the murder.

Context Verlon and Dupont were in Mali to cover the Malian presidential elections in 2013. It was the second assignment in Kidal for Verlon since he reported on the first round of Mali's presidential election in July 2013.

The United Nations assigned the date of commemoration for the International Day to End Impunity based on the outrage behind the murder of Dupont and Verlon, who were killed on 2 November, as stated in its official resolution.

The Ghislaine Dupont and Claude Verlon Scholarship in September 2014, Radio France Internationale announced the Ghislaine Dupont et Claude Verlon scholarships to honor its deceased journalists. The annual award will be presented to a journalist under 30 and a technician from Africa, and they will have the opportunity to study in Paris. The award was first presented on 2 November 2014 in Bamako, which is the first anniversary of their death.