The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, has sent a message to the Head of State Alassane Ouattara, following the release of 46 Ivorian soldiers, who have been pardoned by Mali’s junta leader, Colonel Assimi Goïta.“I congratulate Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara for the leadership he has shown, for the conciliatory spirit of dialogue and the permanent search for lasting peace in this crisis,” said a statement by Antonio Guterres read on the 8:00 p.m. news on RTI 1, the first channel of the Ivorian national television.
The 46 Ivorian soldiers, pardoned by Assimi Goita, the President of the Transition and Head of State of Mali, arrived Saturday at 11:43 p.m. (GMT, local time) at the Abidjan airport, where they were greeted by Mr. Ouattara, the Vice President of the Republic Meyliet Tiemoko, members of the government and the soldiers’ relatives
“My dear soldiers, I would like you to be reassured that you have absolutely nothing to reproach yourselves for (…) you went on mission, it was the 8th rotation for six months, the mission was not easy, but here you are back six months later. I would say mission accomplished,” Ouattara said.
On Friday, January 6, 2023, the President of the Transition and Head of State of Mali, Colonel Assimi Goïta, granted a pardon with full remission of sentences to 49 Ivorian soldiers convicted by the Malian justice system for “crimes of attack and conspiracy against the government.”
Arrested in Bamako on July 10, 2022, and suspected of being “mercenaries,” they were also charged with undermining the external security of the state, possession, carrying, and transporting weapons and munitions of war or defense intentionally in connection with an individual or collective enterprise.
After two days of trial before the Bamako Assize Court, in a special hearing on December 29 and 30, 2022, 46 Ivorian soldiers were sentenced to 20 years of criminal imprisonment. Three female soldiers, released in September, were sentenced to death in absentia.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres had called in September 2022 for “the immediate release of the detained Ivorian soldiers, in the spirit of fraternal relations between the peoples of Cote d’Ivoire and Mali.”
