Ivorian soldiers detained in Mali are not mercenaries – UN
APA- Abidjan The 46 Ivorian soldiers being detained in Mali are not mercenaries said UN Secretary General António Guterres, who has announced a meeting with a Malian delegation to resolve the issue. In an interview with France 24 and Radio France Internationale, Mr. Guterres, speaking on the situation of the 46 soldiers being held in Bamako, said” they are not…
APA – Abidjan (Cote d’Ivoire) The 46 Ivorian soldiers being detained in Mali are not mercenaries said UN Secretary General António Guterres, who has announced a meeting with a Malian delegation to resolve the issue.
In an interview with France 24 and Radio France Internationale (Rfi), Mr. Guterres, speaking on the situation of the 46 soldiers being held in Bamako, said ”they are not mercenaries (and) it is obvious.”
Guterres added: “I appeal to the Malian authorities so that this problem can be sorted out,”.
The UN scribe said he is “in permanent contact” with the junta in Bamako but was yet to speak to its leader Assimi Goïta.
He further said he was poised to receive the Malian delegation, an act he regards as important if the issue of the Ivorian soldiers’ detention is to be resolved.
The UN Secretary General said “we must recognize that the situation in the Sahel is very, very difficult today.”
Hence the meeting with the Malian delegation should allow these concerns to be addressed.
Cote d’Ivoire had announced on 14 September 2022 that it had asked the West African rgional grouping Ecowas to convene an extraordinary meeting of its heads of state and government as soon as possible to examine the crisis with Mali with a view to releasing the detained soldiers.
On August 15, 2022, the Malian judiciary indicted the 49 Ivorian soldiers detained in Bamako for attempting to undermine state security.
After contacts with Malian officials, three Ivorian soldiers were released and returned to Côte d’Ivoire on September 3, 2022.
Abidjan reports that on September 9, 2022, while an agreement was being reached on the release of the other 46 soldiers, whose arrest was considered a judicial matter, the junta demanded that return for the release an extradition by Côte d’Ivoire to Mali of personalities who,were being protected by Abidjan and allowed to destabilize Mali.
For the Ivorian state, this request confirms once again that its soldiers detained in Mali “are in no way mercenaries but rather hostages,” denouncing this as “unacceptable blackmail and demands the release without delay” of its detained soldiers.
Forty-nine Ivorian soldiers were arrested on July 10, 2022 in Bamako, among whom were three female soldiers who were subsequently released on “humanitarian” grounds.
Cote d’Ivoire maintains that they were deployed to Mali as part of the 8th detachment of the national support element within MINUSMA.
