After the lifting of ECOWAS sanctions, another problem risks complicating the relations of the Malian junta with its neighbors. Ivory Coast in particular.
This is how experts from the Sahel region analyze this incredible arrest on Sunday when a group of 49 Ivorian soldiers got off the plane, whom the colonels in Bamako described as mercenaries when they came in rotation from their comrades. assigned to the logistical support of the German contingent of blue helmets deployed in Mali.
Particularly irritated, Abidjan asked Bamako to release “ without delay, the Ivorian soldiers unjustly arrested “. In a press release, the Ivorian Security Council rejects, point by point, the accusations of the board about the soldiers arrested on Sunday July 10 at Bamako airport.
Before the meeting of the Security Council, the silence of the Ivorian State began to challenge, 48 hours after the arrests and 24 hours after the televised intervention of Colonel Abdoulaye Maiga, spokesperson for the Malian junta, reports RFI. The latter claimed that “the Ivorian soldiers had concealed their profession, that they had entered the territory without a mission order and designated them as mercenaries whose fatal intention was to break the dynamics of refoundation and security of Mali”.
First, Abidjan confirms that these men are in Mali as part of the peacekeeping mission of the United Nations. They provide support to the German contingent for the operations of the “national support elements”. All this in a complex subcontracting system: the German contingent uses the infrastructure of a private company, Sahel Aviation Service (SAS), which itself hires the services of Ivorian soldiers for the security of its warehouses.
Thus, seven Ivorian contingents have succeeded each other at Bamako airport since the signing in July 2019 of ” a convention ” with the United Nations, recalls the press release. This would have been the eighth
On the other hand, the Ivorian Security Council confirms that the mission order for the contingent has been transmitted to the Malian airport authorities. ” The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Malian Chief of Staff have received a copy “, he said. Finally, Abidjan assures us that his men were not armed when they arrived, because ” the weapons were on another plane ».