Two French journalists killed in Mali after being abducted

Two French journalists working for RFI radio are killed by gunmen in northern Mali Saturday shortly after being abducted in the town of Kidal.

58-year old Claude Verlon and 51-year-old Ghislaine Dupont were found dead.

Kidal is the birthplace of a Tuareg uprising last year that plunged Mali into chaos. The uprsing led to a coup and the occupation of the northern half of the country by militants linked to al Qaeda.

The journalists were seized after they interviewed a local official with the Tuareg separatist group.

The Malian government released a statement condemning the killings.

A French-led military intervention drove out the militants but there are still pockets of insurgents.

France still has about 3,000 soldiers in the country, alongside troops from Mali and a U.N. peacekeeping mission.

France's defense ministry said that the French army had warned the reporters not to travel to Kidal on Oct. 29 and refused to take them to the town.