The Malian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation announced on Wednesday 20 July the expulsion of the MINUSMA spokesperson. He is accused of having made unacceptable comments on the case of the 49 Ivorian soldiers arrested and detained in Bamako. According to the official statement, Mr Olivier Salgado has 72 hours to pack up.
Bamako no longer wants Mr Olivier Salgado, spokesman for the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) on its territory. In an official statement issued on Wednesday 20 July, the transitional authorities ordered his expulsion for tendentious and unacceptable comments on the case of the 49 Ivorian soldiers detained for more than a week. This measure was taken after a series of publications on Tweeter, where the person concerned declared “without any proof that the Malian authorities had been previously informed of the arrival of the 49 Ivorian soldiers by civilian flight on Sunday 10 July”.
In the same statement, the Malian government said that since 12 July, it had sent an official request to the spokesman for the UNMISMA through its hierarchy in order to provide proof of the claims contained in his tweet. In the end, the request was not followed up. For the Malian authorities, these actions should not be ignored, as they “damage” the partnership with UNMISMA and other partners.
Nevertheless, Mali’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation reassures that the government is ready to maintain dialogue and continue cooperation with all its international partners, including Minusma.
It should be recalled that Togolese President Faure Gnassigbé agreed to mediate between Côte d’Ivoire and Mali for the successful outcome of the case of the 49 Ivorian soldiers held in Bamako.
