The Malian military junta ordered this Wednesday the expulsion of the spokesman for the UN Mission in Mali (MINUSMA), whom it accuses of spreading “biased information” about the case of the 49 Ivorian soldiers detained 10 days ago in Bamako.
The notification about the expulsion, addressed to the Deputy Special Representative of the UN Secretary General, Daniela Kroslak, is contained in an official press release in which it is stated that “Mr. Olivier Salgado, MINUSMA spokesperson, is invited to leave the territory within 72 hours.”
This the decision comes against a background of already strained relationships between Mali and its international partners.
The Malian authorities justified the decision by “the publication of biased and unacceptable information by the interested party (Mr. Olivier Salgado) on the social network Twitter.”
According to Bamaco, Olivier Salgado declared “without any evidence, that the The Malian authorities were reportedly informed in advance of the arrival of the 49 Ivorian soldiers on a civilian flight.at the international airport (in Bamako) on Sunday, July 10, 2022″, according to the press release from the Malian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.
On July 12, the Ivory Coast had requested the “immediate” release of its soldiers, detained “unjustly” and accused by the Malian authorities of being “mercenaries” with the intention of destabilizing the country.
According to Abidjan, the presence of its military in the context of logistical support operations in Minusma was “well known by the Malian authorities”.
Also according to Abidjan, these soldiers should replace other Ivorians deployed in Mali as National Support Elements (ENS), a UN procedure that allows peacekeeping contingents to call on service providers outside the UN for logistical support. .
This was the eighth rotation of soldiers for the UN mission in Mai, Côte d’Ivoire said.
Mali, a landlocked country in the heart of the Sahel, was the scene of two military coups in August 2020 and May 2021 and recently adopted a transition timetable that is expected to see civilians return to power by March 2024.
Following the adoption of this calendar, the member countries of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), of which Côte d’Ivoire is a member, lifted the economic and financial sanctions they had imposed on Mali in January.
The political crisis goes hand in hand with a serious security crisis that has lasted since the beginning, in 2012, of the separatist insurgencies and the bloody actions of Islamic fundamentalists.
Source: Observadora
