The ruling junta in Mali says its foreign ministry was not informed of the deployment of the soldiers via the official channels.

"The mission is trying to understand how these dysfunctions were able to occur in order to avoid them occurring again in the future," the AFP quotes Minusma as saying in correspondence it saw.

Minusma has not yet officially commented.

Ivory Coast insists the troops were not mercenaries, but were there to support Minusma under an agreed contract between the two countries.

Togo has been mediating between the two sides, and just last week Mali's military government ordered the spokesperson of Minusma to leave the country.