The National Transitional Council (CNT) adopted, this Monday, February 20, 2023, the texts of the new administrative and territorial reorganization of our country. The adoption of these laws thus consecrates 19 regions plus the district of Bamako, 156 circles, 466 districts, 819 communes and 12,712 villages, fractions and neighborhoods. The objective of the adoption of these laws, according to the government, is to bring the administration closer to the population, to promote local development at the base, to improve governance, but also to take into account the Agreement for peace and national reconciliation resulting from the Algiers process.
But already, this project is denounced by the civil society of Gao and Timbuktu. In these two regions located in the north of the country, demonstrators hit the pavement at the beginning of the week to express their anger at this project which, in their eyes, presents risks of instability.
In the city of Askia, the platform of civil society organizations “Sauvons Gao”, was indignant against the new territorial reorganization.
To do this, it organized this Tuesday, February 28, 2023 a protest march in the city of Gao.
In the declaration which sanctioned the demonstration, and transmitted to whom it may concern, the Platform “Save Gao”, considers that “this project constitutes without a doubt, a real masquerade against the sedentary populations of the Gao region”.
Indeed, in the declaration, the platform of civil society organizations called “Sauvons Gao”, is indignant against the project relating to the new territorial reorganization.
In the statement read by its spokesperson, Abdoul Karim SAMBA, the Platform recalls that the Gao region had shown its categorical refusal since the days of consultation on the same question in 2018, or arrangements were made for the non-holding of these consultations throughout the region.
Civil society claims to be the victim of an “imposition of an ineffective division in a context of multifaceted and multidimensional crisis” without consulting the grassroots. For this platform, “the advent of the political transition which has aroused so much hope and which continues to be so among the populations must not fall into the trap of those whose governance has darkened their hope”. .
To serve them, a local administration is needed. She is convinced that “this cutting project draws its sources from an ancient era” with the advent of the will of Mali-kura. However, she adds, that this project carries premises of destabilization of the country and of a disagreement without thank you of the People against the current authorities.
Civil society considers that this project is a “deliberate treason against the Malian people, wanted by politicians with the recommended service” and must therefore “emerge and must be purely and simply withdrawn from the circuit in order to safeguard the trust established between the people and their authorities.
“The legendary city of Askia, faithful to its ancestral values of harmony and good neighborliness, will not cede any portion of its territory for unacknowledged purposes”, underlines the declaration.
Consequently, the platform of civil society organizations “Save Gao” calls on the patriotic President, Colonel Assimi GOITA, to simply withdraw this divisionist project from the entire state circuit, because it does not reflect the vision of overhaul initiated.
According to this platform, if the people are “the center of gravity of the transition”, “it is the people who reject this division as it stands. It is certain that this division in the state will give reason to the enemies of our Nation”.
For these civil society organizations, the challenges imposed on the transition are immense and gigantic, hence the interest for the authorities to face them and “to abandon such projects likely to establish a betrayal and an abandonment in full flight”.
However, while reiterating its support for the authorities of the transition, the platform nevertheless invites them to be vigilant to avoid any misunderstanding that could exacerbate hatred and tension between the populations or even the communities, all of which this project of cutting into the state which is a perfect illustration of this.
Also in the Gao region, the populations of Djebock – recently erected in a circle – have risen sharply. They expressed their dissatisfaction with this new administrative division in the Commune of Anchawadj, explaining that their grievances were not taken into account, the main one being the increase in the number of districts in the circle of Djebock which is a very vast city and scattered populations. To serve them, you need a local administration, they say.
Further north, the populations of Rharous in the region of Timbuktu, say niet. They have already announced that they reject this project through a gigantic demonstration last week to demand the erection of their circle in the region and to support the Transition.
The circle of Gourma-Rharous is made up of 37 villages and 147 settlements and has been divided into nine rural communes for a population of approximately 100,000 inhabitants, made up mainly of Tuareg and Moorish nomads and Songhay farmers.
In the initial plan, it was to be the 20th administrative region of Mali.
With the 19 regions, some had difficulty in being reorganized, often even the governors of these new regions were in Bamako or often in the other regional capitals, such as the case of the governors of Taoudéni which resides in Timbuktu and that of Ménaka in Gao .
By Abdoulaye OUATTARA