"The plane carrying 46 Ivorian soldiers has just taken off from Bamako", the airport official said.

The Ivorian soldiers, whose detention triggered a bitter diplomatic row between Mali and Ivory Coast, were arrested on July 10 after arriving in Bamako.

Mali accused them of being mercenaries, while Ivory Coast and the United Nations say they were flown in to provide routine backup security for the German contingent of the UN peacekeeping mission.

On December 30, the 46 soldiers were sentenced to 20 years in prison, while three women among the original 49 arrested, who had already been freed in September, received death sentences in absentia.

They were convicted of an "attack and conspiracy against the government" and of seeking to undermine state security, public prosecutor Ladji Sara said in a statement at the time.

On Friday, Mali's junta leader, Colonel Assimi Goita, pardoned all 49 troops.