Mali’s military government has rejected a call for ECOWAS-led talks over the detention of Ivorian soldiers in Bamako, reported The Africa News. It called Ivory Coast’s request for a regional meeting on Ivorian troops detained in Mali since July “intimidation” and “blackmail.”
In a statement read on state television on Thursday evening, Mali’s interim Prime Minister Colonel Abdoulaye Maiga told the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) that the case “is purely judicial and bilateral.”
He warned against “any instrumentalisation of ECOWAS by the Ivorian authorities to avoid their responsibility” and said Mali’s government would only accept the existing mediation agreement, brokered by Togo.
He charged that the Ivorian government wanted conflict and had transformed a judicial case into a diplomatic crisis.
On Wednesday, Ivory Coast’s National Security Council published a statement requesting an ECOWAS meeting and accusing Mali of taking the soldiers hostage.
Relations between the two countries began to deteriorate after the military seized power in Mali in August 2020. Things worsened in July when 49 Ivorian soldiers were arrested after flying in to Bamako airport. Three of them, all women, have since been released.
The 49 soldiers from Ivory Coast arrived at Mali’s Bamako airport in July as support for a U.N. contingent. Mali arrested the soldiers, accusing them of being mercenaries and placed them in custody on charges of attempting to harm state security.
Ivory Coast said the troops were sent to provide backup for the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali, MINUSMA, and are being unfairly detained.
Tensions rose last week when Mali’s military junta chief Colonel Assimi Goita implied their release could hinge on the extradition of several Malians living in Ivory Coast. Ivory Coast on Wednesday lashed the perceived condition as “blackmail” and requested an urgent ECOWAS summit.
Both Ivory Coast and Mali are ECOWAS members but Mali is currently suspended from its decision making bodies because of the military takeover.
