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Forty-six Ivorian soldiers detained in Mali since July departed the capital Bamako on Saturday a day after being pardoned by Mali’s junta leader, an airport official and a diplomatic source told AFP.
The Ivorian soldiers, whose detention triggered a bitter diplomatic row between Mali and Ivory Coast, were arrested on July 10, 2022, after arriving in Bamako.
Mali accused them of being mercenaries, while Ivory Coast and the United Nations say they were flown in to provide routine backup security for the German contingent of the UN peacekeeping mission.
On December 30, a Malian court sentenced the 46 soldiers to 20 years in prison, while three women among the original 49 arrested, who had already been freed in September, received death sentences in absentia.
They were convicted of an “attack and conspiracy against the government” and of seeking to undermine state security, public prosecutor Ladji Sara said at the time.
On Friday, Mali’s junta leader Assimi Goita pardoned all 49 troops.
From Bamako, they will travel to Togo’s capital Lome before carrying on to Abidjan, a Togolese diplomatic official told AFP.
Togolese President Faure Gnassingbe mediated in the row and had paid a “friendly working visit” to Bamako on Wednesday.
Diplomatic efforts
The trial opened in Bamako on December 29 and concluded the following day.
It came in the run-up to a January 1 deadline set by leaders from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) for Mali to release the soldiers or face sanctions.
An Ivorian delegation had travelled to Mali for talks before the trial opened, and the Ivorian defence ministry had said the dispute was “on the way to being resolved”.
