Djibouti City, 15th October 2025. The President of the Republic of Djibouti, His Excellency Ahmed Araita Alie has officially opened the African Official Gazettes Forum Conference in Djibouti City.

The conference, which attracted government officials, legal publishers, and civic education leaders from across the continent, aims to strengthen the role of official journals in promoting government transparency, legal certainty, and public trust.

Held from 15–16 October under the patronage of Djibouti’s senior leadership, the conference gathered delegates from over 25 African nations, including Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, Senegal, Algeria, and Namibia. The forum will focus on modernising official gazette systems, improving public access to legal information, and encouraging regional collaboration on standards and digitisation.

“Official gazettes are the legal backbone of democratic governance. Their integrity and accessibility are essential to empowering citizens and ensuring accountability,” said His Excellency Ahmed Araita Alie, the keynote speaker during the opening session.

The Sierra Leone’s delegation includes, the representatives from the Government Printing Department, The Government Printer, Mr Salifu L. Suma and the Acting Director of Government Information Services in the Ministry of Information and Civic Education (MoICE), Emmanuel A.B. Turay who will share the country’s experience in Digitizing the Sierra Leone Gazette to improve timeliness and reach, Coordination across ministries for synchronized legal publication and training civil servants and media professionals on journal interpretation and civic literacy.

The conference will also feature technical workshops, policy roundtables, and bilateral meetings focused on: developing e-Gazette platforms and digital repositories; harmonising metadata and publication formats across jurisdictions; and integrating official journals into civic education and legal empowerment programs

The forum will conclude with a joint communiqué calling for: Increased investment in official journal infrastructure; Regional peer-learning and technical exchange; and Recognition of gazettes as tools for democratic resilience and inclusive governance.

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