Mali’s military junta leader Assimi Goita on Friday pardoned all 49 Ivorian soldiers whose arrest in July led to a bitter diplomatic tiff, a government spokesperson said, reported The TRT World.
“Colonel Assimi Goita… granted a pardon with full remission of sentences to the 49 Ivorians convicted by the Malian justice system,” said Mali government’s spokesperson Colonel Abdoulaye Maiga, the minister for territorial administration and decentralization, in a statement.
The statement described the move as an independent decision symbolising the president’s commitment to good governance and preserving fraternal relations with countries in the region, particularly Ivory Coast.
Last week, Mali’s court sentenced 46 Ivorian soldiers to 20 years in prison, and three women, who had already been freed in early September, to death sentence in absentia.
According to public prosecutor Ladji Sara, the soldiers were convicted of an attack and conspiracy against the government and of seeking to undermine state security. The trial opened in Bamako on Dec. 29 and concluded the following day.
The court proceedings were announced before a Sunday deadline that was set by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) leaders for Mali to release the soldiers or face sanctions.
Mali’s junta had detained the Ivorian soldiers after they arrived at Bamako airport July 10 and branded the troops as mercenaries.
Ivory Coast and the United Nations claimed that the soldiers were flown in to provide routine backup security for the German contingent of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Mali. Ivory Coast has previously said its troops were being held hostage and made repeated pleas for their release. Ivorian authorities had also warned the imprisonment would lead to consequences.
Mali’s junta leader Goita seized power in two coups, first in 2020 and then the following year, when he took control after firing the president and prime minister of the transitional government.
