46 soldiers left Ivory Coast They have been detained in Mali for nearly six months, Bamako, on Saturday afternoon, the day after the President of the Military Council in Mali, Asimi Guetta, pardoned them, according to shipping and diplomatic sources.
The soldiers were sentenced to 20 years in prison.
“The plane carrying 46 soldiers from Ivory Coast 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 July 10, 2022, and Mali accused them of being “mercenaries” trying to undermine state security. Ivory Coast called for their release, stressing that they were on a United Nations mission.
The case caused great tension between two “brotherly countries” and two neighbors with complex relations.
Mali had accused Ivory Coast 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 the sanctions were finally lifted in early July.
A source close to the presidency in Ivory Coast told “Agence France Presse”: “We expect their arrival this afternoon,” which was confirmed by a military source.
Before returning to Abidjan, the 46 soldiers will pass through Lomé, where they will be formally handed over by Togolese President Faure Gnassingbé to Ivory Coast Defense Minister 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 as mediator with a view to their release, and both the authorities in Mali and Ivory Coast applauded his mediation. In Abidjan, the soldiers will be received at the presidential suite at the airport “in the presence of the most important personalities,” including Head of State Alassane Ouattara, according to the Presidency of the Republic.
A court in Bamako 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 assault and conspiracy against the government, attacking the external security of the state, and possession, carrying and transporting weapons and military ammunition.”
The head of Mali’s military junta, Colonel Assimi Goita, issued a pardon on Friday evening, “with all charges dropped” against them, according to a presidential decree.
Since their arrest, Abidjan confirms that these soldiers were on a mission to the United Nations as part of the logistical support operations of its mission in Mali (MINUSMA) and calls for their release.
Ivory Coast 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)