President Julius Maada Bio welcomed a Mali delegation for a one-day working visit to investigate the country’s return to constitutional democracy and peace.
The delegation was led by Abdoulaye Diop, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, who conveyed greetings from Interim President Colonel Assimi Gota of Mali to President Bio, whom they referred to as a comrade and brother.
They also shared their government’s experience in restoring constitutional rule and maintaining peace in Mali.
“I am here as a special envoy from the interim President of Mali, Colonel Assimi Goïta, to seek the guidance and expertise of Sierra Leone’s President Julius Maada Bio to be an engine of peace, security and stability in the subregion. And to also assure the leadership of ECOWAS about his willingness to return Mali to constitutional order. Mali is presently facing many difficult challenges. We are ready to work in a collaborative fashion of peace and security,” he said.
He insisted that they intended to benefit from President Julius Maada Bio’s knowledge and competence, as well as his involvement in bringing Sierra Leone to constitutional government and transferring power from a military to a democratic civilian administration.
President Bio congratulated the special envoy, the Malian delegation, and the Interim President of Mali, Colonel Assimi Gota, in a brief statement for their confidence in his sustained assistance to help ease the return to peaceful democratic government in Mali and the subregion.
He added that just as in the days of the civil war in Sierra Leone, when Mali came to help the country, his government was also willing now to give technical assistance and also make available their expertise to help the process of restoring peace and security to Mali.
It could be recalled that in May last year President Bio called for consultations and communications with stakeholders at the ECOWAS Extraordinary Session on the political situation in Mali in Accra, Ghana.
