November 15 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Government of the Ivory Coast has announced the withdrawal of its contingent from the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA), amid bilateral tensions following the arrest in May of nearly 50 Ivorian soldiers in Bamako.
The permanent mission of Côte d’Ivoire to the UN has transferred to the international organization “the decision to progressively withdraw Ivorian military personnel and police officers deployed within MINUSMA,” according to a letter delivered to the Peace Operations department.
“The replacement of the protection company based in Mopti and the deployment of officers of the General Staff and Police officers, scheduled for October and November 2022, cannot be carried out,” he explained, before announcing that Yamoussoukro “will not plans to relieve the military and other elements present within the MINUSMA force in August 2023.”
In this sense, he has stressed that he will transfer to the UN the “suitable provisions that he will carry out to immediately apply this decision”, while he has shown his “willingness to continue committed to the service of peace”, according to what Malian media have reported.
For this reason, he has emphasized that the Ivorian government “is willing to redeploy the troops withdrawn from Mali in other UN peacekeeping missions”, without the international organization having ruled for the moment on the content of the missive.
The Ivory Coast denounced in September “unacceptable blackmail” by the Mali military junta regarding the situation of the more than 40 Ivorian soldiers detained in July at the capital’s airport, accusations rejected by Mali.
The Malian military junta had 49 soldiers from the Ivory Coast detained as “mercenaries” when they landed in Bamako. The soldiers had the mission of relieving the troop that secures a MINUSMA base at the capital’s airport, according to Yamoussoukro.
The announcement comes days after the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, formalized the end of the ‘Barkhane’ operation in the Sahel, amid the withdrawal of international troops due to tensions with the military junta over its postponement of the elections after the coups d’état of August 2020 and May 2021.
