Mattarella is visiting Africa: another step in the “Mattei plan”

The official mission of the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, to West Africa begins today. A five-day affair that will see the ca-pe of state land in the afternoon in Ivory Coast, while on Thursday he will be expected in Ghana, where he will stay for institutional meetings until Saturday. We are talking about two key countries, just below the Sahel belt, which has long been the epicenter of instability throughout the continent -nent and which is not coincidentally called the coup belt because of the rapid succession of coups (in Mali, Guinea, Sudan, Burkina Faso, Niger and Gabon) that were unleashed from 2020 to 2023. Not to mention the constant presence of terrorist organizations in the area. At the top of the agen-da, we learn, will be “security and stabilization, energy cooperation, and collaboration in education and training projects

The five-day diplomatic mission of the president of the republic to Ivory Coast and Ghana kicks off. Education, energy and security are at the center of the tour, in the wake of the Mattei plan
professional,” in line with the partnership between Italy and Africa that has been named the “Mattei plan.” In this context, Ghana is one of the most democratically advanced countries in the area, while Côte d’Ivoire is the strategic priority of the project managed by the Italian government. Mattarella’s, who visited Ethiopia in 2016 and reached Mozambique and Zambia in 2022, is the first official visit of an Italian head of state to Côte d’Ivoire and follows the invitation of the president, Alassane Ouattara (with whom talks are planned in the presidential palace), two years ago. The first stop will be Abidjan, the country’s largest city, where the president will receive the keys to the entire district, a recognition

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On Thursday, however, he is scheduled to arrive in Accra, Ghana’s capital, where he will meet with President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo (previously received at the Quirinal in 2003). A visit to Fort Christiansborg, which was notorious for holding men, women, and children before selling them as slaves, will come next. At the heart of the mission will be education. In Côte d’Ivoire, the head of state will visit a number of educational facilities, such as the Vridi Canal school complex in Abid-jan, which includes four schools and has 1,450 primary students. A virtuous example of what is possible on the ground, thanks to the intervention of Avsi (an Italian organization founded in 1972 and operating locally in an overall project involving 700 schools), in partnership with Eni.

This is a valuable activity that can be replicated in other parts of the country and ranges from teacher training to parental involvement, from drinking water supply to building renovation. While in Ghana, Mattarella will visit a professional institute of the Salesians, in collaboration with Confin-dustria Alto Adriatico, which trains cooks and workers. Also crucial is the issue of energy. In Côte d’Ivoire, Eni is very active and has been a key player in the discovery of major oil fields. It is a crucial activity that makes Italy a regional energy hub, with a leading role in resource exploitation and supplies to the international and domestic markets. Finally, in the area of security, the president of the Republic will visit the Italian ship Bettica, part of a monitoring mission to combat piracy and crime, which hold the Gulf of Guinea hostage.