Dear Sisters,

The cycle of time brings us back each year to 8 March, a symbolic Day, which fixes in the global and more specifically African collective memory, the exigency to restore the rights of women, of which they should never have been robbed. This is the ultimate objective of the Women’s Day. Have we made steady progress towards attaining this ultimate goal over time ? Are we closer to it, today, than yesterday?

I doubt ! The reasons for my scepticism are both obvious and numerous. What is happening in the different Regions of the Continent ? Armed conflicts of which women and girls are the first victims indiscriminately in their different statuses as Mothers, Wives, Sisters and Daughters. Plunged into total destitution, they often lack everything, and, more serious, they are often even deprived of their own bodies, used for mercantile and war purposes.

These hotbeds of violence are certainly only the tree that hides the forest of unspeakable and ineffable suffering which overwhelms the daily lives of thousands, indeed millions of women around the world, like the massacred and dehumanised Palestinian women.

Such a context, darkened by violence of all kinds, is unfortunately not conducive to the implementation of this global theme of the year, namely "Investing in Women" and particularly for Africa which wants to "Invest in Women by Accelerating Progress towards Economic and Financial Inclusion for Sustainable Developmen’’.

With the implementation of the policy on Positive Masculinity, through the convening of annual meetings, at the level of Heads of State and Government, our leaders demonstrate permanent mobilisation to obtain from their respective citizens a significant reduction, if not a total abolition of violence against women and young girls, through the adoption of appropriate legislation.

The urgent task that challenges us is indeed that of Silencing the Guns, promoting good democratic and economic governance, striving to restore social peace by building it together. Only then will we be ready to establish an environment conducive to the development of Women and Young Girls.

I cannot conclude this message without saluting the dynamism of our Mothers, our Sisters, our Wives and our Daughters, whether they are in rural areas or in the city, for their remarkable resilience, for all the efforts they make to safeguard the balance of their respective families, through countless sacrifices in the fields, markets and wherever they are.

I would particularly like to salute women in theatres of conflict and those involved in Mediation and Peace Negotiation processes. An admirable task that highlights the depth of the humanity that imbues them. They serve as examples and symbolise the future of an Africa in constant quest for peace, the Africa that we want.

Like these heroic women, I hope that this example of courage and self-sacrifice will inspire all other women for a prosperous and inclusive Africa.

Happy Women's Day !