Togo’s President Faure Gnassingbé has offered to mediate in the tensions between Mali and Cote d’Ivoire.

This follows the detention of 49 Ivorian soldiers in Mali earlier this month. The Malian government spokesman Col. Abdoulaye Maiga said that the soldiers were illegally on the national territory of Mali, adding that the transitional government considers them mercenaries.

The government of Ivory Coast however denied that that the soldiers posed a threat to the country.

Sankulleh Janko has more