Published on: 06/01/2023 – 22:26 Changed on: 07/01/2023 – 09:53
The head of the Malian junta, Colonel Assimi Goïta, on Friday pardoned the 49 Ivorian soldiers who were arrested in July and subsequently convicted by the Malian judiciary, according to a presidential decree. These arrests had sparked a diplomatic row between the two countries.
The 49 Ivorian soldiers who have been held in Mali since July were pardoned by the head of the Malian junta, Assimi Goïta, on Friday, January 6, a government spokesman said.
“Colonel Assimi Goïta (…) has granted pardon with full amnesty to the 49 Ivorians convicted by the Malian courts,” reads an official press release.
These Ivorian soldiers were arrested in Mali, labeled as “mercenaries”, and arrested in mid-August on charges of “attempting to undermine the state’s external security”.
Three of them, women, were released in mid-September.
On December 30, the Malian judiciary sentenced these women to the death penalty in their absence and still imprisoned the 46 soldiers for twenty years.
The press release specifies that these soldiers are charged with “crimes of aggression and conspiracy against the government, undermining the external security of the state, possessing, carrying and transporting weapons and ammunition for war or defense intentionally in connection with a individuals or collective undertakings whose purpose is to disrupt public order through intimidation or terror”.
On January 4, the Togolese President Faure Gnassingbé, responsible for the detente in this affair, traveled to Bamako for a visit lasting several hours.
Since July 10, Côte d’Ivoire has been demanding the release of its soldiers, categorically denying that they were or are “mercenaries” and claiming that they were on a mission for the UN as part of United Nations logistical support operations Mission of Nations in Mali (Minusma).
On December 22, an official Ivorian delegation visited Bamako in the presence of the Togolese Foreign Minister in a “fraternal” spirit. It ended with the signing of a memorandum in which Ivorian Defense Minister Téné Binahima Ouattara, brother of the head of state, stressed that the case was “in the process of being resolved”.
The Acting President of the West African States (ECOWAS) assured on Wednesday that despite the expiry of the January 1 release ultimatum given to the Malian junta, there would be no immediate sanctions against Mali to let the Togolese mediation work for the release of the 46 Ivorian soldiers.
With AFP