The President of the Republic, His Excellency Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé, received on January 07, 2023 in Lomé, the Ivorian soldiers pardoned yesterday by the President of the Transition of Mali.

On the way to Abidjan, the Ivorian delegation observed a stopover in Lomé to discharge a duty of gratitude towards the Togolese Head of State for his involvement in the management of the crisis arising from the arrest of 49 Ivorian soldiers. in Mali in July 2022.

On behalf of the President of the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire, His Excellency Alassane Ouattara, the Minister of State, Minister of Defence, Téné Birahima Ouattara expressed his country’s deep gratitude to the Togolese Head of State for his mediation which led to the happy ending of the situation.

“President Ouattara asked us to come and thank President Faure Gnassingbé for the action he took to obtain the release of the 46 soldiers [after that of the three female soldiers, already released in September 2022]. It took all the determination of the President of the Togolese Republic during these six months for us to be able to obtain this result today”.

For his part, the Togolese Minister of Foreign Affairs, Professor Robert Dussey reiterated the commitment of the Head of State who brought this process to a successful conclusion and obtained the presidential pardon for the Ivorian soldiers. He thanked the Malian and Ivorian authorities for having trusted the President of the Togolese Republic.

With this happy outcome which relieves all stakeholders and contributes to strengthening cohesion between States, President Faure Gnassingbé’s leadership for regional stability is recognized and welcomed, particularly in view of this African capacity, tried and tested, to find endogenous solutions to the difficulties that could arise in relations between States.

On January 4, the Togolese head of state went successively to Bamako where he met the President of the Malian transition, and to Abidjan for discussions with President Alassane Ouattara.