Published on: 01/17/2023 – 06:25
These Ivorian soldiers had been officially convicted by the Malian courts notably of “conspiracy against the government” and “undermining the state’s external security”. Information released today by RFI shows that these soldiers did indeed arrive in Mali as part of the Minusma, at the request of the German contingent.
Immediately after their arrest, Abidjan claimed that his 49 soldiers were NSE (National Support Element), elements supporting the Minusma blue helmets (National Security Council press release of July 12). As the UN mission itself declared on July 11, before mysteriously returning three days later (Statement by a spokesman at the UN Headquarters in New York, broadcast on RFI on July 14).
This reversal led to Bamako’s expulsion of Minusma’s spokesman less than a week later, opening a way for the transitional authorities to accuse the Ivorian soldiers of having come to destabilize Mali. The soap opera will run for six months, with the United Nations demanding the release of the 49 without ever clarifying their true status. According to several internal UN documents that RFI was able to obtain, it was Minusma that brought in the 49 Ivorian soldiers, more precisely the German contingent of the UN mission.
The flights that had allowed the Ivorian soldiers to carry out their rotations on July 10 were presented to the Malian authorities as intended for the transport of troops from the German contingent. Since July 2019, the date of the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Abidjan and the United Nations, seven Ivorian contingents in Bamako had succeeded one another and were considered NSEs.
The 49 arrested soldiers formed the eighth relief operation. However, according to documents seen by RFI, it was the German Minusma contingent stationed at Bamako airport that requested the identity cards of these Ivorian soldiers. In some cases, even German and Ivorian names appear on the same list. And at the request of the German contingent, on June 10, just a month before the arrival of the 49 who were to succeed them, the predecessors of the 49 were personally decorated by the commander of the UN force. A ceremony whose images had been broadcast by the Ivorian authorities as proof of their goodwill, but which had not indicated the origin of the request for decoration.
471 NSE in support of the German contingent
From the beginning of the affair, Côte d’Ivoire had mentioned a contract linking its army with the private company SAS (Sahel Aviation Service), which had then indicated that it had been “mobilized” in the case of the Ivorian soldiers, without providing further details to name . . . According to Abidjan, the contract related to the security and logistics of a site at Bamako Airport. According to UN sources, this site houses the NSEs of the German contingent and is not managed by Minusma itself.
In June 2022, the German contingent told Minusma that 471 soldiers with NSE status supported their activities without specifying their nationality. A staggering number, well above the 50 theoretically allowed by the UN’s 2015 policy on NSE, except in exceptional cases.
How does Germany justify the use of 471 NSE? Were Ivorian soldiers included in this number? Is there a contractual connection between Germany and the company Sahel Aviation Service? In a note addressed to the Malian authorities, Minusma stated at the end of July that it was not aware of any contract between Germany and third parties for the security of its NSE based in Senou (Bamako Airport). Has Minusma been informed about the contract signed between Abidjan and the Sahel Aviation Service company?
So far, only the Ivorian side has acknowledged “shortcomings and misunderstandings” upon the arrival of its 49 soldiers in Mali, without specifying their nature. It was last September, during the Release of three female soldiers among the 49 arrested. Despite what was then portrayed as a “humanitarian gesture” by Bamako, these three soldiers were eventually released sentenced to death in absentia last month by the Malian judiciary.
Neither confirmed nor denied by the UN
At the request of RFI, the United Nations has neither confirmed nor denied all of this information. In its response, the UN Headquarters in New York considers that “it would not be appropriate for the United Nations to provide information on internal operational and administrative (sic) matters and related diplomatic correspondence with the Malian authorities and the authorities of Member States, who have made personnel available to Minusma. The German authorities – the Embassy in Bamako and the Ministry of Defense in Berlin – have not responded.
This new information confirms that the arrested, convicted and then released Ivorian soldiers came to Mali as part of Minusma, but with numerous administrative irregularities for which neither the German contingent nor the UN mission itself was responsible. At least publicly. On July 14, four days after the arrest of 49 Ivorian soldiers, Mali grounded all Minusma flights. These flights could only resume a month later after a review between the two parties to the rotation authorization protocol by the Malian authorities.