Mali’s ruling junta on Saturday released three women among the 49 Ivorian soldiers who were detained about two months ago, reported Reuters.
Togolese Foreign Affairs Minister Robert Dusse, whose country has been mediating talks, said the three women were released as a humanitarian gesture by Mali’s military leader, Col. Assimi Goita.
“I would like to announce that the president of the transition, President Assimi Goita of Mali, has agreed… to proceed with the release of some prisoners,” Dusse said while speaking in the Togolese capital, Lome, alongside Mali’s foreign minister, Abdoulaye Diop, and Ivory Coast’s cabinet director, Fidele Sarassoro.
Notably, 46 remaining soldiers are in jail in a case that has heightened tensions between the two West African countries.
Dusse said that discussions are under way to ensure that the other soldiers in detention are also freed.
“We are sad because our friends are still there and we hope to be able to retrieve them very soon,” said one of the soldiers, Sita Bamba, who was released along with Awa Bakayoko and Kangah Badou Adele Bledou.
In July, the Ivorian soldiers were sent to Mali to work for Sahelian Aviation Services, a private company contracted by the United Nations.
Malian authorities detained the soldiers at the airport in the Malian capital, Bamako, as they accused them of entering the country without permission.
Mali’s government said it considered the Ivorian soldiers to be mercenaries because they were not directly employed by the U.N. mission and that they were in possession of weapons and ammunition of war “without a mission order.”
The Ivory Coast government has repeatedly requested their release. It claims that the soldiers were unfairly arrested after being sent to support the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali, MINUSMA. They say that the contingent’s role within the mission was well informed to the Malian authorities.
