Mali’s military government on Wednesday dismissed the spokesperson for the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) over his controversial tweet about a diplomatic incident with Ivory Coast, reported The Africa News.
The announcement came just days after the Malian authorities arrested 49 Ivorian soldiers upon their arrival at Bomako’s airport and later described them as “mercenaries” with an intention of toppling the country’s military-led government.
Olivier Salgado, the MINUSMA spokesman, has been given 72 hours’ time to leave the country over “tendentious and unacceptable” posts he made on Twitter, the government said in a statement.
Salgado claimed in the tweet that Malian authorities were previously informed of the arrival of 49 Ivorian soldiers to Mali on July 10.
The Malian government, on the other hand, continues to assert that it was not informed of the arrival of the soldiers. It claimed in a statement that the soldiers were present in Mali to “break the dynamics of the refoundation and security” of the country.
Salgado said in the tweet that the Ivorian soldiers arrived for logistical support on behalf of one of the UN mission’s contingents, though they were not present as official contingent forces for Mali’s U.N. mission, MINUSMA. Ivory Coast has called for the soldiers’ release.
Last week Mali announced it was suspending all new rotations of the MINUSMA peacekeeping mission, including those already scheduled, for “national security” reasons.
Friction between the U.N. and Mali’s military government have been rising in recent months, with the U.N. being denied access to the town of Moura, where they wanted to launch a human rights investigation of an alleged massacre.
When MINUSMA’s mandate in Mali was renewed during a Security Council meeting on June 29, Mali’s representative to the U.N. stated that the government would not be permitting the U.N. to carry out any human rights investigations.
