Ivory Coast asks Mali to release its detained soldiers
Abidjan, Ivory Coast – (AFP):
Ivory Coast has called on Mali to release 49 of its soldiers “unjustly” detained at Bamako airport and accused by officials there of being mercenaries.
None of the Ivorian soldiers detained were carrying weapons of war, said a statement from the Ivorian president’s office after an emergency meeting of the National Security Council.
The Ivorian authorities have insisted the soldiers had arrived to join MINUSMA, the UN peacekeeping force in Mali.
Mali on Monday had said the troops from the Ivory Coast were armed and “mercenaries”, having detained them on arrival.
“These are not UN peacekeeping troops, so they’re not part of MINUSMA formally,” Farhan Haq, a spokesman for the UN Secretary General, said Tuesday.
But they were part of the national support elements deployed by the contributing countries to back up their contingents, he added. “That’s a common practice in peacekeeping missions.”
Mali’s government has said its foreign ministry was not informed via official channels, denouncing a “flagrant violation” of the penal code relating to territorial integrity.
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