In Côte d’Ivoire, a National Security Council was held on Thursday August 4th. At the top of the topics discussed, the case of the 49 Ivorian soldiers detained in Bamako for more than three weeks. The CNS is chaired by Alassane Ouattara, who therefore expressed himself on this situation which he says he follows “personally”.
With our correspondent in Abidjan, Peter Pinto
In its press release, the National Security Council confirms that Ivorian officials, in this case the charge d’affaires in Bamako and the military attaché of Côte d’Ivoire, were able to meet the 49 soldiers detained since July 10 and who ” have high morale “.
” However, the National Security Council deplorescontinues the text, that the transitional authorities of Mali continue to detain these soldiers arbitrarily, despite all the explanations and evidence provided by the Ivorian authorities to attest to the legal and regular nature of their mission “.
Alassane Ouattara thanks his Togolese counterpart Faure Gnassingbé for his mediation and initiatives with a view to a diplomatic resolution of this misunderstanding between Côte d’Ivoire and Mali “.
For the moment the discussions seem to be blocked. Bamako would seek to obtain the extradition of former senior Malian officials who would be on Ivorian soil. What Abidjan refuses.
During this CNS, the Ivorian president also thanked the current president of ECOWAS, the Bissau-Guinean Umaro Sissoco Embalo, as well as Macky Sall who chairs the African Union and the deputy secretary general of the UN Amina Mohamed for their solidarity and involvement.
On Wednesday, Defense Minister Téné Birahima Ouattara met the families of the 49 soldiers as if to show that the country is united behind them.