Abidjan, The President of the Republic of Togo, Faure Gnassingbé, mediator in the Ivorian-Malian crisis, welcomed the release of Ivorian soldiers detained for six months by the Malian junta in Bamako.
“I am delighted with the presidential pardon granted by His Excellency Colonel Assimi Goïta, President of the Malian Transition to the 49 Ivorian soldiers arrested in Bamako on July 10, 2022”, indicated, Saturday January 7, 2023, the head of the Togolese State in a series of tweets.
He hailed the will and the spirit of dialogue of the Ivorian and Malian Presidents for this happy outcome, reiterating his country’s readiness to continue tirelessly to strengthen regional cooperation for peace and understanding between States for the good -being peoples.
The president of the transition of Mali, colonel Assimi Goïta, granted Friday, January 6, 2023, the pardon “with total remission of sentences to the 49 Ivorian soldiers sentenced by the Malian justice”.
These Ivorian soldiers, constituting a relief of support forces for the United Nations mission in Mali, have been arrested in Mali since July 10, 2022, described as “mercenaries” by the Malian authorities, then charged in mid-August with “attempting threat to the external security of the State” and subsequently imprisoned.
Three of them, women, were released in September.
The 46 others were sentenced on December 30 to 20 years’ imprisonment and a fine of two million FCFA each, after a two-day trial at the Bamako Court of Appeal. The women were sentenced to death in absentia.
The decree in favor of the pardon granted to Ivorian soldiers came after a visit on Wednesday January 04, 2023 to Bamako and then to Abidjan by the mediator of this crisis, Togolese President Faure Gnassingbé.
Source: Agence Ivoirienne de Presse