This is the latest clarification provided by the United Nations regarding the situation of Ivorian soldiers in detention in Mali. “They are not mercenaries. It’s obvious. And I appeal to the Malian authorities so that this problem can be resolved.”replied Antonio Guterres, the Secretary General of the United Nations during an interview granted to France 24 and RFI, on September 18, 2022, on the eve of the General Assembly of the organization. “We have to solve this problem”he added.
This statement comes as the tone has risen again between Abidjan and Bamako in recent days about the fate of these soldiers, accused of being “mercenaries” by Mali. Arrested since July 10, they were imprisoned in August for “attempt to undermine state security”. However, the situation seemed to have calmed down between the two countries at the beginning of September, after the release of three women, out of the 49 soldiers detained, thanks to the mediation of Togo.
But on September 9, after a meeting with Nigerian Foreign Minister Geoffrey Onyeama, transitional president Assimi Goïta linked the fate of Ivorian soldiers to that of “certain Malian personalities subject to international arrest warrants issued by the courts” to whom Abidjan would give “political asylum”. Of the“personalities (benefitting) the protection of Côte d’Ivoire to destabilize Mali. Hence the need for a lasting solution as opposed to a one-way solution which would consist in acceding to the Ivorian request without compensation for Mali”says the press release from the Malian government.
A request to which Côte d’Ivoire reacted a few days later in a press release published on September 14 at the end of a National Security Council. According to the Ivorian authorities, “This request confirms, once again, the fact that our soldiers are in no way mercenaries but rather hostages”. They consider “this blackmail as unacceptable and (require) release, without delay” of their soldiers. Côte d’Ivoire has also decided to seize the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) “with a view to holding, as soon as possible, an extraordinary meeting of Heads of State and Government to examine the crisis” between the two states.
The day after the Ivorian declaration, Bamako for its part expressed “(her) deep amazement” in the face of the Ivorian reaction, arguing again that “no legal basis” did not justify “the presence” of these soldiers on Malian soil. In its press release, the transitional government recalled that the head of the junta “indicated to the Ivorian side the need to consider the situation of certain Malians, the subject of international arrest warrants”. Similarly, Mali specifies that the mediation undertaken by Togo is “the only framework for settling the file” Ivorian soldiers and that he “is in no way concerned with (the) planned procedure” by Abidjan with ECOWAS. The Malian authorities have also warned that they will not yield “to no blackmail”.