The 49 soldiers from Ivory Coast who were arrested six months ago in Mali will be pardoned. Malian Colonel Abdoulaye Maïga wrote in a Friday evening statement on Twitter that his government drop all charges against them, including “murder and conspiracy against the government.”
In July, soldiers landed in the Malian capital Bamako in support of a UN peacekeeping mission to promote stability in the country. The Malian junta arrested the Ivorians at the airport for allegedly being mercenaries and sentenced 46 of them to 20 years in prison for “undermining the security of the state”. Malian authorities do not want the blue helmets to get in their way.
The arrests led to new tensions between Ivory Coast and Mali, which already had a difficult relationship with its neighbors. The West African alliance ECOWAS had imposed sanctions to force new elections, and lifted most of them when Mali announced elections in 2024. A week later, the Ivorian soldiers were arrested.
Help from Togo
The Malian government itself speaks of a gesture “that once again demonstrates its commitment to peace, dialogue, Pan-Africanism and the maintenance of fraternal and secular relations with the countries of the region, especially those between Mali and the Ivory Coast”. As far as is known, Ivory Coast has not yet responded.
In response to the arrests, ECOWAS threatened new sanctions if the soldiers were not released by January 1. That deadline passed, but the country association still wanted to give Mali more time to come to a solution with the help of Togo, AFP news agency wrote on Wednesday. Colonel Maïga’s statement shows that this has now been done. Mali thanks Togo for “its tireless efforts and its continued commitment to dialogue and peace in the region.”
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