Category Archives: The Gambia

‘Right to freedom from torture’: UN experts urge the Gambia not to decriminalise FGM

Posted on by

Repealing ban would mean return of ‘one of the most pernicious forms of violence committed against women and children’

A team of UN experts has urged Gambian lawmakers not to repeal a ban on female genital mutilation, saying such a move would set a dangerous global precedent.

In a letter dated 8 April and made public on Thursday, the experts, led by Reem Alsalem, the UN special rapporteur on violence against women and girls, said allowing the unchecked return of “one of the most pernicious forms of violence committed against women and children” would violate their right to freedom from torture.

Continue reading...

Move to overturn FGM ban in the Gambia postponed

Posted on by

Committee will examine for at least three months a bill proposing repeal of ban on female genital mutilation

A decision on whether to overturn a ban on female genital mutilation (FGM) in the Gambia has been postponed for three months after MPs called for more consultation.

FGM was outlawed in the country eight years ago and is punishable by up to three years’ imprisonment.

Continue reading...

The Gambia team make emergency landing on way to Africa Cup of Nations

Posted on by
  • Loss of cabin pressure and oxygen to blame, says Gambian FA
  • Saidy Janko: ‘The consequences could have been a lot worse’

The Gambia’s coach, Tom Saintfiet, said he and his players feared for their lives after the plane taking them to the Africa Cup of Nations made an emergency landing, delaying their arrival at the tournament in the Ivory Coast.

The Gambia squad set off from Banjul on Wednesday for the short trip to Yamoussoukro, where they will play their opening two group games, but minutes after take-off they turned around because of a lack of oxygen inside the plane, he said, adding: “Luckily for us, the pilot recognised the problem and after nine minutes in the air turned around to land again. We all fell asleep.”

Continue reading...

Gambian ex-minister on trial in Switzerland for crimes against humanity

Posted on by

Ousman Sonko is accused of supporting repressive policies and was arrested in Bern in 2017 after applying for asylum

A former Gambian minister has become the highest-ranking official to be tried in Europe under the principles of universal jurisdiction after his trial on charges of crimes against humanity opened in Switzerland.

Ousman Sonko, interior minister under the west African country’s ousted dictator Yahya Jammeh, was arrested in Bern in 2017 after applying for asylum in Switzerland.

Continue reading...

FGM ban in the Gambia under threat as calls grow to repeal law

Posted on by

Women’s rights campaigners denounce ‘hugely regressive’ proposals from political and religious leaders to decriminalise practice

Political and religious leaders in the Gambia are threatening to introduce a bill to decriminalise female genital mutilation, eight years after the practice was outlawed.

Members of the country’s national assembly have backed a proposal for the 2015 law to be scrapped while the Supreme Islamic Council has issued a fatwa condemning anyone who denounces the practice and calling for the government to reconsider the legislation.

Continue reading...

Police release e-fit of man found dead in wheel bay of Gatwick-bound plane

Posted on by

Detectives hope to identify man, whose body was found on a Tui flight from the Gambia on 7 December

Police have released a digitised image of a man who was found dead in the undercarriage of a plane, as they work to identify him.

The man’s body was found on a Tui flight from the Gambia to the UK. His body was discovered at Gatwick airport at about 4am on 7 December, Sussex police said at the time.

Continue reading...

Avian flu outbreak in the Gambia threatens birds on East Atlantic Flyway

Posted on by

Hundreds of dead birds found in past three weeks as conservationists call for international funding to help stop the disease spreading on migration routes

An outbreak of avian influenza in seabirds in the Gambia could affect vast numbers of birds migrating along the East Atlantic Flyway, unless international funding is secured, warn conservationists.

Teams from the West African Bird Study Association (Wabsa), the Gambia’s Department of Parks and Wildlife Management, and UK-based NGO Conservation Without Borders have buried hundreds of dead birds over the past three weeks, including some ringed birds from Europe.

Continue reading...

WHO urges action after cough syrups linked to more than 300 child deaths

Posted on by

Deaths in the Gambia, Indonesia and Uzbekistan due to kidney injury associated with contaminated medicines, the WHO said

The World Health Organization has called for “immediate and concerted action” to protect children from contaminated medicines after a spate of child deaths linked to cough syrups last year.

In 2022, more than 300 children - mainly aged under 5 - in the Gambia, Indonesia and Uzbekistan died of acute kidney injury, in deaths that were associated with contaminated medicines, the WHO said in a statement on Monday.

Continue reading...

Indonesia bans sale of syrup medicines after at least 99 child deaths

Posted on by

Country investigating 206 cases of kidney injury that could be linked to ingredients in liquid medicines

Indonesia has banned the sale of all syrup medicines as it investigates the deaths this year of nearly 100 children, warning that the liquids may contain ingredients linked to fatal kidney injuries.

The move comes just weeks after the World Health Organization issued an alert over four Indian-made cough syrups that it said were potentially linked with acute kidney injuries and the deaths of 70 children in the Gambia.

Continue reading...

Warning over cough syrups after 66 children die in the Gambia

Posted on by

WHO says the contaminated medications may have been distributed outside of the West African country, with global exposure ‘possible’

The World Health Organization (WHO) has issued an alert over four cough and cold syrups made by Maiden Pharmaceuticals in India, warning they could be linked to the deaths of 66 children in the Gambia.

The UN health agency also cautioned the contaminated medications may have been distributed outside the West African country, with global exposure “possible”.

Continue reading...

Genocide case against Myanmar over Rohingya atrocities cleared to proceed

Posted on by

UN’s international court of justice rejects arguments advanced by military junta over crackdowns against Muslim minority group

The United Nations’ highest court has rejected Myanmar’s attempts to halt a case accusing it of genocide against the country’s Rohingya minority, paving the way for evidence of atrocities to be heard.

The international court of justice rejected all preliminary objections raised by Myanmar, which is now ruled by a military junta, at a hearing on Friday.

Continue reading...

‘We took our children and ran’: thousands displaced as Senegal’s 40-year war crosses border

Posted on by

More than 6,ooo people have left their homes as renewed violence in the Casamance region spills into the Gambia

It was late morning when the bullets burst through the corrugated roof of Maimouna Kujabee’s farmhouse. First, she hit the ground. Then she took off, running from her village in Ziguinchor, in Senegal’s Casamance region, as fast as her children could manage.

Through fields and forest, with only the clothes on her back, Kujabee did not stop until she reached Bajagar, in the Gambia, about a mile north of the border. “The sun was hot. I ran until my sandals were cut up,” says Kujabee.

Continue reading...

Wounds of Bronx fire felt half a world away in the Gambia

Posted on by

People in two tiny West Africa towns are stunned by the deaths of sisters, nephews and mothers in a tight-knit immigrant community

Early on Sunday morning, Ebrima Dukureh, 60, answered a phone call at his home in the Gambian town of Allunhari.

It was his nephew, Haji Dukureh, 49, calling from New York City, to check in – as he often did. The two men caught up on news, asked after each other’s families and exchanged blessings.

Continue reading...

Gambian opposition parties reject preliminary election results

Posted on by

Incumbent president Adama Barrow leading with twice votes of nearest rival in test of democratic stability after decades of Yahya Jammeh’s rule

Gambian opposition candidates have rejected the preliminary results of Saturday’s historic vote in the West African nation which suggest the incumbent president, Adama Barrow, had easily won re-election.

According to official results announced by the electoral commission, Barrow is leading with a significant margin of more than 200,000 votes. Barrow in 2016 unseated the former president Yahya Jammeh, who is accused of human rights abuses and corruption.

Continue reading...

Can the Gambia turn the tide to save its shrinking beaches?

Posted on by

In a developing country reliant on its tourist industry, the rapidly eroding ‘smiling coast’ shows the urgent need for action on climate change

When Saikou Demba was a young man starting out in the hospitality business, he opened a little hotel on the Gambian coast called the Leybato and ran a beach bar on the wide expanse of golden sand. The hotel is still there, a relaxed spot where guests can lie in hammocks beneath swaying palm trees and stroll along shell-studded pathways. But the beach bar is not. At high tide, Demba reckons it would be about five or six metres into the sea.

“The first year the tide came in high but it was OK,” he says. “The second year, the tide came in high but it was OK. The third year, I came down one day and it [the bar] wasn’t there: half of it went into the sea.”

Continue reading...

‘Taste this, it’s salty’: how rising seas are ruining the Gambia’s rice farmers

Posted on by

The farmers, mostly women, once grew enough but must now buy imported rice as the climate crisis edges them into poverty

In the sweltering heat of the late-morning west African sun, Aminata Jamba slashes at golden rice stalks with a sickle. “The rice is lovely,” she says, music playing in the background as her son, Sampa, silently harvests the grain. But even if the quality is high, the quantity is not.

While once Jamba could have expected to harvest enough rice to last the whole year, this year she reckons it will last three to four months. After that, she will have to look elsewhere for a way to feed her family and make enough money to live.

Continue reading...

Blowing the house down: life on the frontline of extreme weather in the Gambia

Posted on by

A storm took the roof off Binta Bah’s house before torrential rain destroyed her family’s belongings, as poverty combines with the climate crisis to wreak havoc on Africa’s smallest mainland country

The windstorm arrived in Jalambang late in the evening, when Binta Bah and her family were enjoying the evening cool outside. “But when we first heard the wind, the kids started to run and go in the house,” she says.

First they went in one room but the roof – a sheet of corrugated iron fixed only by a timbere pole – flew off. They ran into another but the roof soon went there too.

Continue reading...

‘Living from flood to flood’: the crisis of Gambia’s sinking city

Posted on by

As well as floods, sewage and crocodiles, those living in Banjul’s slums face the effects of a climate crisis they did little to cause

Yedel Bah would move home if she could, but she can’t. With no income of her own, four children to feed and a husband who just about manages, her family lives from day to day, and from flood to flood, on the banks of a litter-strewn, stagnant canal.

Every rainy season, the neighbourhood of Tobacco Road in the Gambian capital, Banjul, braces for downpours of such intensity that the canal overflows, spilling its murky, pungent depths into the slum-like homes that run alongside it.

Continue reading...

Hit $100bn target or poor countries face climate disaster, the Gambia tells Cop26

Posted on by

West African nation’s environment minister says richer countries must finally honour funding commitment made at Cop15 in 2009

Rich countries must hit their $100bn climate finance target in the last week of Cop26 or it will be catastrophic for the poorest nations suffering the most from the climate crisis, the Gambian environment minister has warned.

In an interview with the Guardian as he prepared to leave for Glasgow, Lamin B Dibba urged developed countries to finally honour the annual funding commitment that was made 12 years ago at the Copenhagen climate summit (Cop15) – but which has never been achieved.

Continue reading...

‘It is what girls need’: the FGM activist hoping to be the Gambia’s president

Posted on by

Despite inexperience and few allies, Jaha Dukureh is offering people change and a break with the past in December’s election

Jaha Dukureh was a young mother of three with little campaigning experience when she started a movement in the Gambia to end female genital mutilation, backed by the Guardian.

In the seven years that followed she advised Barack Obama in the US, where she was then living, helped have FGM banned in her home country, was nominated for a Nobel peace prize and became a UN ambassador.

Continue reading...