President Mattarella in Ivory Coast, a sign of attention towards Africa

A strategic continent for Italy, with its unresolved tensions and an overwhelming demographic and economic boom, in fact the southern gateway to Europe from where hydrocarbons and migrants enter.

Sergio Mattarella arrived in Abidjan in Ivory Coast, for a three-day state visit to Africa which confirms how much the continent has returned to the center of Italy’s interest after years of inattention which allowed other countries (some European but above all to China and Russia) the economic and political penetration of the area.

A continent that is located a stone’s throw from the southern borders of Europe and which the President of the Republic has put on the Quirinale’s radar for years and which today, with the government’s Mattei plan, returns to the top of Rome’s foreign policy dossiers.

It is the first ever by an Italian head of state in Ivory Coast. This is – they explain from the Quirinale – “a signal of great attention and a clear political message” to West Africa which will be completed with a follow-up mission to neighboring Ghana where Mattarella will move on Thursday.

With great attention to cooperation policies (especially education and the world of youth), the political geography of the president is thus enriched, having already visited Kenya, Zambia, Mozambique, Ethiopia and Algeria in recent years.

Ivory Coast and Ghana are two important countries in the region and represent a fundamental link with a turbulent area like that of the Sahel where Islamic fundamentalism, terrorist cells and illegal immigration flows are observed with particular attention by the services of the Western world.

Ivory Coast and Ghana, always benchmarked to African standards, are two democracies that offer dynamic and open economies and political dialogue is therefore easy. Eni is already present in Ivory Coast and Mattarella, after the political meetings on the first day, will also visit a plant of the Italian oil company, the Baleine pumping station.

If a lot of attention is dedicated to a very sensitive topic in the two countries, namely education, for Mattarella a round up on all the main international dossiers, from Ukraine to the Middle East, will be inevitable. More specifically, the issue of safety and protection of maritime trade routes will be addressed: in fact, the president will also visit the ‘Bettica’ offshore patrol vessel of the Italian Navy in Ghana, engaged in monitoring operations in the Gulf of Guinea, as part of of a program to combat piracy.

In Abidjan Mattarella will have a political conversation with the President of Ivory Coast, Alassane Ouattara.

Also on the first day of the visit to Ivory Coast, the president will be given the keys to the Abidjan district, a prestigious recognition in the past also attributed to the French Presidents Emmanuel Macron and Francois Hollande. Same script on the first day of the visit to Ghana: on Friday 5 April, in the morning, there will be a meeting with the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, who will offer him a state lunch in the evening. In the afternoon Mattarella will visit Christiansborg Castle, one of the many located on the Atlantic coast from which slave ships departed in the past. This is a tribute to honor the memory of the victims of the terrible human trafficking that afflicted Africa for centuries, particularly the western part.