Reconciliation Week in Mali: Unity and development at the heart of the meetings

The President of the transition, Colonel Assimi Goïta proceeded this Thursday, September 15, 2022 in Bamako, to the opening of the first edition of the Reconciliation Week. It is primarily a question of allowing an exchange between Malians so that they can talk to each other and forgive each other. The initiative will be perpetuated and celebrated every year from September 15 to 21.

Chasing the demons of division and ensuring collective fulfillment

” A week like the one we are launching now is an opportunity to chase away the demons of division and terror so that the prospects of development, a factor of collective blossoming, can germinate,” said the head of the ruling junta, Col. Assimi Goïta, as he launched from Bamako, the activities of the National Reconciliation Week.

The need of a return to centuries-old values

The reconciliation advocated by the transitional government involves certain immutable fundamentals specific to Malian society. And it is for this reason that Colonel Assimi Goïta placed particular emphasis on the duty to create the conditions of a return to secular values, to reconcile communities, to reconcile the State and the citizens. For him, these conditions will allow the emergence of a stronger national unity based on mutual listening and forgiveness.

“It is at this price that we could usefully direct our energies as well as our intelligence towards the real development of our nation,” he says.

The amnesty of some political figures requested

For the Sadi party, it is imperative to raise during the Week of National Reconciliation, hot topics without which the basis of reconciliation will be distorted.

” There are a number of issues that need to be clarified so that we know whether it is the Malian state that is seeking reconciliation with armed groups or whether it is a national reconciliation. Of course, we must integrate the political class and its political actors, including Oumar Mariko and others today who are in exile – or almost – outside the country, and we cannot talk about reconciliation in this context,” said Babarou Bocoum, the political secretary of the African Solidarity for Democracy and Independence (Sadi) party.