Peace initiative: FIFA scribe visits Sierra Leone

FIFA Secretary General Fatma Samoura To Visit Sierra Leone, To Support Manor River Union Football For Peace Initiative

FIFA Secretary-General, Madam Fatma Samoura, will arrive in Sierra Leone on the 26th of April to support the Sierra Leone Football Association’s Football for Peace Initiative with the Mano River Union and UNDP in Sierra Leone.

Madam Samoura, a long-standing UN Career diplomat served in Sierra Leone during the civil war era, as well as many other African countries before being elected the First Female Secretary General of FIFA.

Samoura is expected to participate as keynote speaker at a live AYV broadcast panel discussion program on April 26.

Other Guest Speakers will include: Foreign Minister Mrs Nabeela Tunis, Secretary-General of the Mano River Secretariat in Sierra Leone, Ambassador Mrs Medina Wesseh, UNDP Country Representative Pa Lamin Beiya, Vice President of Mano River Women’s Peace Network, Madam Yasmin Jusu Sheriff.

It is anticipated that the driving force behind the Mano River Football For Peace Initiative – Sierra Leone’s FA President and newly elected FIFA Council Member, Madam Isha Johansen, will seek to kick start a pledge through FIFA to strengthen economic and development ties between the sub-regional countries (Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea and Ivory Coast) by using football as common force peace and reconciliation.

An international friendly match will be played between Sierra Leone and Liberia on the 28th of April at the newly completed Fifa/SLFA artificial turf in the Kenema township of Kenema.