HIS EXCELLENCY MAJOR-GENERAL C.N.B. YAACHE GHANA’S AMBASSADOR TO MALI VISITS THE ‘PRESSURE COOKER OF AFRICA’

H.E Major-General C.N.B Yaache, Ghana’s Ambassador to Mali undertook a Consular/Tour of Kayes, the First Region of host country, towards the end of 2007. This last edition of the Ambassador’s usual quarterly tour in the year 2007, took him to the towns of Nioro du Sahel, Kirane, Yelimane and Kayes, the Regional Capital.

H.E, the Ambassador was accompanied by the Head of Chancery, Mr. Mawutor Alifo and two Executive Committee Members of the Association of Ghana Communities in Mali (ASCOGHAM).

The major objectives of the visit included the following: to assess the Consular/Welfare needs of the Ghanaian nationals and to offer the necessary remedial measures; to identify the prospects and impediments to lawful trading/vocational activities facing Ghana Nationals in the Region; to interact with host Regional and local government authorities vis-a-vis the welfare, security and good trade practice needs of our compatriots; and to brief Ghanaians on current developments in Ghana; and to educate our nationals about trade and investment opportunities in Ghana.

Kayes Region shares international frontiers with Mauritania, Senegal and Guinea. The main economic activities of the region include large-scale Agriculture, crop cultivation and livestock rearing, especially cattle, sheep, goats as well as the resultant production of hide and skin.

The Region is nicknamed the ‘pressure cooker of Africa’, due to the general belief that it is the hottest in Sub-Saharan African, with temperatures exceeding 55 degrees Celsius during the peak of the hot season.

A principal slave-trade outpost during the colonial era, the strategic location of the city along the banks of River Senegal has ensured a smooth transportation of goods and people within and outside the country over the years.

It is estimated that there are about eight hundred Ghanaians living in various parts of the region. They are largely involved in carpentry and masonry work, herbal medicine, farming, trading in second hand clothing and the exportation of hide and skin. The rest belong to the professional and technical class in the mining and energy sector.

In all the areas visited, the Ambassador and his entourage met the Ghanaian Communities and used the opportunity to obtain firsthand information on the pertinent issues that hinder the performance of their legitimate activities. Some of the concerns raised by the Ghanaians included harassment by security personnel, lack of unity among the membership of the Ghana Community as well as the burden placed on them as a result of the rampant cases of repatriation of Ghanaians from Senegal and Mauritania. In that regard, they called for the establishment of a Consular Office in Kayes.

H.E Major-General C.N.B. Yaache assured the Ghanaians in Kayes that he was going to raise the concerns expressed by them before the host authorities and ensure an amicable solution. He however stated the Embassy’s inability to open a Consular office outside Bamako. The Ambassador also advised the Ghanaians to be united as one family and eschew activities that would result in disunity.

Ambassador Yaache and his delegation held separate meetings with the Regional and district political and Security authorities in Kayes where he raised the concerns of the Ghanaians to them. Tracing the historical, social and economic ties between the Ghana and Mali, he advised his hosts to treat Ghanaians as sons and daughters of Kayes and not as foreigners. At the end of each meeting, the Ambassador was assured that he was leaving the Region of Kayes with the understanding that Ghanaians in Kayes would henceforth be well protected.

Accordingly, since the return of His Excellency, the Ambassador, to Bamako, reports reaching the Embassy have indicated a remarkable reduction in the level of harassment by local security officials on Ghanaians in the Kayes Region. Reports also indicate that the Governor has taken a keen interest in the resolution of the problems and other issues relating to the Ghana Community in Kayes.

This development is similar to reports received from all the Regions the Ambassador had visited in the past. It is evidently clear that the Consular/Trade visits of His Excellency Major-General C.N.B Yaache have yielded very positive results. The Ghana Embassy in Bamako is therefore encouraged to draw up similar programmes for the year 2008, aimed at ensuring that the well being and legitimate activities/interests of every Ghana national living in the Republic of Mali are well protected.