Togo’s President Arrives in Mali to Mediate in Freeing Detained Suspected Ivorian ‘Mercenaries’

Republic of Togo’s President Faure Essozimna Gnassingbe Eyadema arrives for a working lunch with French President at the Elysee Presidential Palace in Paris on April 9, 2021Muhammad OsmanIn late December 2022, Mali sentenced 46 Ivorian soldiers suspected of being “mercenaries” to 20 years in prison, days before a deadline set by the regional ECOWAS bloc for Mali to free the troops expired. The Ivorians were arrested by Malian authorities at Bamako airport in July 2022 to provide back-up security for a UN peace-keeping mission.President Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé Eyadéma of Togo arrived on Wednesday in Mali’s capital city of Bamako to mediate in the case of 46 Ivorian troops jailed in Mali since July 2022, and accused of being “mercenaries”.“President Faure has just arrived in Bamako for a visit which is due to last some hours. He was welcomed by President Assimi Goita,” said Abdoulaye Cisse, a diplomatic adviser to Mali’s foreign ministry, as cited by the media.According to the diplomat, President Gnassingbe was accompanied by President Goita to Mali’s Presidential Palace, where they are scheduled to hold two meetings, “including one behind closed doors between the two presidents”.On 10 July 2022, Mali authorities arrested 49 Ivorian troops, including three female soldiers, as they arrived at Bamako airport to provide back-up security for a United Nations peace-keeping mission in Mali, accusing them of being “mercenaries”. Later, the three female soldiers were freed but the 46 others were kept in detention.After exhausting all diplomatic means, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), a regional bloc, threatened to impose sanctions against Bamako unless it releases the detained Ivorian troops before 1 January.On 30 December 2022, two days before the deadline expired, a Malian court sentenced the Ivorian soldiers to 20 years in prison, claiming that the 46 suspects were found guilty of an “attack and conspiracy against the government” of Mali.However, the ECOWAS later announced that it would go on with its threat of imposing sanctions on Mali to give Togo’s mediation in the diplomatic spat a chance to bear fruit.“We have given Togolese mediators time to do their job, to resolve the situation. It’s just a matter of common sense,” said Guinea Bissau’s President Umaro Sissoco Embaló, the present head of ECOWAS.Western media cited an unnamed source in the Malian presidency as saying that President Gnassingbé Eyadéma had called for a “presidential pardon” for the Ivorian soldiers during his Wednesday meeting with Mali’s leader Goita.

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