46 soldiers left Ivory Coast They have been detained in Mali for almost six months, in Bamako on Saturday afternoon, the day after the president of the Military Council of Mali, Asimi Guetta, pardoned them, according to maritime and diplomatic sources.
The soldiers were sentenced to 20 years in prison.
“The plane carrying 46 Ivory Coast soldiers took off from Bamako,” an airport official in the Malian capital told AFP on condition of anonymity.
The soldiers were arrested at Bamako airport on 10 July 2022 and Mali accused them of being “mercenaries” seeking to undermine state security. Côte d’Ivoire has requested their release, stressing that they were on a UN mission.
The case has caused strong tensions between two “brother countries” and two neighbors with complex relationships.
Mali had accused Côte d’Ivoire of inciting its partners in West Africa to tighten sanctions against the military who carried out two coups in Mali, one in August 2020 and the second in May 2021, and sanctions they were finally lifted in early July.
A source close to the presidency in Côte d’Ivoire told “Agence France Presse”: “We expect their arrival this afternoon”, confirmed by a military source.
Before returning to Abidjan, the 46 soldiers will pass through Lomé, where they will be formally handed over by the Togolese president Faure Gnassingbé to the defense minister of Côte d’Ivoire Tiny Brahima Ouattara.
Before returning to Abidjan, the 46 soldiers will pass through Lomé, where Togolese President Faure Gnassingbe will formally hand them over to Ivory Coast Defense Minister Tiny Brahima Ouattara, who will send them back to their country.
President Gnassingbé played a crucial role in mediating their release, and both the Malian and Ivory Coast authorities applauded his mediation. In Abidjan, the military will be received in the presidential suite at the airport “in the presence of the most important personalities”, including the head of state Alassane Ouattara, according to reports from the presidency of the Republic.
A Bamako court on December 30 sentenced the soldiers to 20 years’ imprisonment. Three of the women, among them, were released in mid-September and sentenced to death in absentia.
All of them were convicted of charges including “crimes of aggression and conspiracy against the government, attacking the external security of the state and possessing, carrying and carrying military weapons and ammunition”.
The head of the military junta of Mali, Colonel Assimi Goita, issued a pardon on Friday evening, “with the dropping of all charges” against them, according to a presidential decree.
After their arrest, Abidjan confirms that these soldiers were on a mission to the United Nations as part of the Logistical Support Operations Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) and calls for their release.
Côte d’Ivoire and the United Nations confirm that these soldiers were supposed to participate in ensuring the security of the German contingent operating within the international peacekeeping force in Mali.
(AFP)
