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Dozens of Ivorian soldiers head home after pardon from Mali coup leader

Forty-six Ivorian soldiers have departed Bamako, easing a diplomatic row between the two Western African countries following the military takeover of Mali in August 2020.

AFP

Ivory Coast and the United Nations said that the soldiers were flown to Mali to provide routine backup security for the German contingent of the UN peacekeeping mission.

Forty-six Ivorian soldiers detained in Mali since July have departed the capital Bamako a day after being pardoned by Mali's junta leader, an airport official, a Malian army officer and a diplomatic source said.

The detention of the Ivorian soldiers, who departed Bamako on Saturday, triggered a bitter diplomatic row between Mali and Ivory Coast after they were arrested on July 10, 2022 following their arrival in Bamako.

Mali has accused the soldiers of being mercenaries, while Ivory Coast and the United Nations say they were flown in to provide routine backup security for the German contingent of the UN peacekeeping mission.

On December 30, a Malian court sentenced the 46 soldiers to 20 years in prison, while three women among the original 49 arrested, who had already been freed in September, received death sentences in absentia.

They were convicted of an "attack and conspiracy against the government" and of seeking to undermine state security, public prosecutor Ladji Sara said at the time.

On Friday, Mali's junta leader Assimi Goita pardoned all 49 soldiers.

Col. Assimi Goita granted the pardon and “demonstrates once again his commitment to peace, dialogue, pan-Africanism and the preservation of fraternal and secular relations with regional countries, in particular those between Mali and Ivory Coast," said a statement from government spokesman, Colonel Abdoulaye Maiga.

From Bamako, they will travel to Togo's capital Lome before carrying on to Abidjan, a Togolese diplomatic official said.

Togolese President Faure Gnassingbe mediated in the row and had paid a "friendly working visit" to Bamako on Wednesday.

Longstanding tensions

Relations between Mali and its West African neighbours had already been strained before the arrests, since elected president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita was toppled in August 2020 by officers angered at failures to roll back a militant insurgency.

Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara is considered as one of the West African leaders who have strongly expressed their opposition against the coup leaders in Mali.

After the troops were detained, the UN acknowledged some procedural "dysfunctions" in a note addressed to the Malian government, saying that "certain measures have not been followed".

The Ivorian presidency also admitted "shortcomings and misunderstandings".

But the row escalated in September, when diplomatic sources in the region said Mali wanted Ivory Coast to acknowledge its responsibility and express regret for deploying the soldiers.

Bamako also wanted Ivory Coast to hand over people who had been on its territory since 2013 but who are wanted in Mali, they said.

Ivory Coast rejected both demands and was prepared for extended negotiations to free the troops, the sources said.

"This hostage-taking will not be without consequences," Ouattara said at the time.

The tensions led Mali's interim prime minister at the time, Abdoulaye Maiga, to denounce a "synchronisation of actions" against Mali at the UN General Assembly in September.

He criticised UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for having declared that the Ivorian soldiers were not mercenaries.

SOURCE: AFP