Bobo-Dioulasso: The general directorate of communication and media is organizing, on May 23 and 24, 2024 in Bobo-Dioulasso, a public conference around the theme ‘Fight against violent extremism in Burkina Faso: roles and responsibilities media and religious leaders in the promotion of peace and social cohesion’. This initiative aims to provide communications solutions to combat violent extremism and promote peace in Burkina Faso.
The public conference brought together several media people and religious leaders from several regions in the western zone of Burkina Faso.
Its theme was ‘Fight against violent extremism in Burkina Faso: roles and responsibilities of the media and religious leaders in promoting peace and social cohesion’.
Several communications related to this theme were delivered to them. These include, among other things, ‘the fight against terrorism and violent extremism: state of play, challenges and prospects for the fight against GAT operating in Burkina Faso’, or ‘fight against terrorism: w
hat contributions do journalists make to a real rebuilding in Burkina Faso? “.
At the opening of the conference on May 23, 2024, the representative of the Minister of Communication, Culture, Arts and Tourism, Boukary Nitiema, specified that the conference aims to mobilize information professionals and communication around actions to reconquer the integrity of the national territory .
Through this objective, it will be a question of deconstructing subversive messages of hatred and stigmatization, and of raising awareness of the values of living together, solidarity and social cohesion between communities.
This conference, he added, is a framework for exchange and sharing with journalists and communicators with the aim of proposing communication solutions capable of effectively combating terrorism and violent extremism.
He invited information and communication professionals to make the media “the solution and not the problem in our quest for remedies to the difficulties we are experiencing”, and to work to
guarantee the media their privileged place as a channel of mass education and promotion of morale and cultural values.
‘In this context of security crisis, we need to exist before thinking about anything. We need to reconquer our territory to freely go about our business and contribute to the development of our dear homeland. We need to carry out a profound transformation of our society to count in the concert of nations,’ recalled Bourkary Nitiema of this message from the Head of State to the participants.
It is at the price of these individual and collective sacrifices, he continued, that we can achieve this.
The regional director of Communication for Hauts-Bassins, Marguerite Blegna, expressed the hope that participants would propose solutions in terms of communication to effectively fight against violent extremism so that Burkina Faso becomes a haven of peace again.
This is also the wish of the Director General of Communication and Media, Yirmalé Frédéric Somé for whom, the conference was initiated to
convey the message and the concern of the Ministry of Communication which is to change language and have new elements language with the population to defeat terrorism.
Source: Burkina Information Agency