In information revealed by RFI, 49 Ivorian soldiers who were arrested last year in Mali and accused of being mercenaries were part of the UN's Minusma mission and had been deployed at the request of the German contingent.
The Ivorian military personnel were pardoned and released to return home earlier this month.
Arrested on their arrival in Bamako in July, 2022, they were convicted by a Malian military court last December of "plotting against the government" and "undermining the external security of the state".
Côte d'Ivoire insisted that the soldiers were part of a so-called National Support Element (NSE) to reinforce Minusma operations, in accordance with a communiqué from the Ivorian National Security Council on 12 July.
The UN Mission itself had already revealed this on 11 July, before a UN spokesperson mysteriously back-tracked on the announcement three days later in a statement from UN headquarters in New York.
This turn around led to Bamako's expulsion of Minusma's spokesman less than a week later, and paved the way for Mali's military junta to accuse the Ivorians of having come to destabilise the country.
#Communiqué | Conseil National de Sécurité du mardi 12 juillet 2022
— Gouvernement de Côte d'Ivoire (@Gouvci) July 12, 2022
Ci-dessous le communiqué ⤵️#CICG #GouvCI @primatureci pic.twitter.com/sOumMIjLRW
UN agreement with Côte d'Ivoire
The affair lasted six months, with the UN calling for the release of the 49 soldiers without clearly specifying their status.
According to several internal UN documents seen by RFI, it was indeed Minusma, more precisely, the German contingent of the UN mission, that brought in the Ivorians.
The flights that allowed the Ivorian soldiers to carry out their rotations on 10 July were submitted to the Malian authorities as being for the transport of troops from the German contingent.
Since July 2019, when an agreement was signed between Côte d'Ivoire and the United Nations, seven Ivorian contingents had flown to Bamako and were considered as NSEs.
The 49 soldiers arrested by the junta were the eighth rotation.
It was also at the request of the German contingent that the predecessors of the 49 were decorated by the UN force commander himself on 10 June, just one month before the arrival of the soldiers who were to succeed them.
Support for Minusma German contingent
From the outset of the affair, Côte d'Ivoire mentioned a contract linking its army to a private company – Sahel Aviation Service –which had specified that it was "mobilised" in the case of the Ivorian soldiers, without giving further details.
According to the Ivorian authorities, the contract dealt with the security and logistics of a site at Bamako airport.
The UN says this site houses the German contingent's NSEs and is not managed by Minusma itself.
Last June, the German contingent declared to the UN mission that 471 soldiers were supporting its activities with NSE status, without specifying their nationality.
This is a particularly high number, much higher than the 50 theoretically authorised by the UN rules, except under exceptional circumstances.
Neither confirmed nor denied by the UN
The Ivorians have acknowledged "shortcomings and misunderstandings" regarding the arrival of its 49 soldiers in Mali, without further details.
Last September, three female soldiers among the 49 arrested were released.
These three soldiers were sentenced to death in absentia last month by the Malian justice system.
Asked for a response, UN headquarters in New York said that "it would not be appropriate for the UN to transmit information relating to internal operational and administrative matters."
The German authorities, both the embassy in Bamako and Ministry of Defence in Berlin, refused to answer questions.
(Source: David Baché, RFI Afrique)
