Published on : Modified :
Forty-six Ivorian soldiers detained in Mali for nearly six months left Bamako on Saturday and are expected in Abidjan, the day following the pardon granted to them by the head of the Malian junta Assimi Goïta. These soldiers had been sentenced on December 30 to 20 years’ imprisonment by a court in Bamako.
The 46 Ivorian soldiers detained in Mali for nearly six months and sentenced to 20 years in prison, then pardoned by junta leader Assimi Goïtaleft Bamako on Saturday, January 7 in the followingnoon, we learned from airport and diplomatic sources.
“The plane carrying the 46 Ivorian soldiers has just taken off from Bamako,” an official at the airport in the Malian capital told AFP on condition of anonymity. The soldiers are expected in Abidjan on Saturday.
The release of these soldiers accused by Mali of being “mercenaries” who had come to destabilize it and arrested on July 10, 2022 at Bamako airport, was demanded from the start by Côte d’Ivoire which, with the UN, affirmed that they had to participate in the security of the German contingent of blue helmets in this Sahelian country shaken by violence.
This affair caused great tension between two “brother countries” and neighbors with already complicated relations: Mali had accused Côte d’Ivoire of having incited its West African partners to toughen the sanctions once morest the soldiers who carried out two attacks. State, in August 2020 then in May 2021, sanctions finally lifted in early July.
The Malian power dominated by the putschist colonels has erected this affair into a manifestation of the sovereignty which it has posed as a cardinal principle vis-à-vis France, pushed towards the exit nine years following the launch of its intervention once morest the jihadist groups. , the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and even the UN Stabilization Mission (Minusma).
The plane carrying the 46 soldiers left Bamako around 5 p.m. (local and GMT), according to airport and diplomatic sources.
A welcome with great fanfare planned in Abidjan
Before their return to Abidjan, they must pass through Lomé where Togolese President Faure Gnassingbé will officially hand them over to the Ivorian Defense Minister, Téné Birahima Ouattara, who will bring them back to their country.
President Gnassingbé, who “rejoiced” in a tweet at the pardon granted to the soldiers, played a decisive role in their release and both the Malian and Ivorian authorities paid tribute to his mediation.
In Abidjan, the soldiers will be welcomed at the presidential pavilion at the airport “in the presence of the highest authorities”, according to the presidency, among which should be the head of state himself, Alassane Ouattara.
They were sentenced on December 30 to 20 years in prison. by a court in Bamako, three female soldiers released in September having been sentenced to death in absentia.
All had been declared guilty of “attack and conspiracy once morest the government”, “undermining the external security of the State”, “possession, carrying and transport of weapons and munitions of war (…) with the aim of to disturb public order by intimidation or terror”.
On Friday evening, the Malian government announced that the transitional president, Colonel Assimi Goïta, had “granted his pardon with full remission of sentences to the 49 Ivorians convicted by Malian justice”.
This announcement followed a meeting on December 22 in Bamako between senior Malian and Ivorian officials, concluded with the signing of a memorandum notably leaving open the possibility of a presidential pardon following a conviction.
“Mercenary” soldiers for Bamako, “hostages” for Abidjan
Since their arrest, Côte d’Ivoire has categorically denied that its soldiers were “mercenaries”, ensuring that they were on a mission for the UN, as part of logistical support operations for Minusma.
She had described them as “hostages” denouncing the “blackmail” exercised by Bamako which demanded in particular the extradition of Malian personalities opposed to the junta, in exile in Abidjan, in exchange for their release.
ECOWAS had given Mali until 1is January to release the soldiers on pain of new sanctions, an ultimatum not respected by Bamako. However, “there will be no sanctions once morest Mali in the immediate future”, declared on Wednesday the head of the Bissau-Guinean state, Umaro Sissoco Embalo, current president of the organization.
Both in Abidjan and Bamako, this pardon was well received by those interviewed by AFP.
In Abidjan, Noufo Ouattara, an electrician, felt that we must “forgive on both sides” because “the two countries have a really strong brotherly bond and the two populations are practically the same”.
In Bamako, Zafara Ongoïba thinks that “nothing beats peace”. “It’s a sigh of relief for the international community, for the sub-regional community and for all the Malian and Ivorian people,” he adds.
With AFP
