Men were sent on from Ghana despite ‘risk of torture, persecution or inhumane treatment’
A lawyer for 11 west Africans deported by the US to Ghana said they had been returned to their home countries despite many fearing for their safety.
Under Donald Trump’s drive to ramp up expulsions, the US has sent migrants to third countries, including Rwanda, Uganda and El Salvador, prompting accusations that deportee rights have been violated.
Continue reading...Three African contenders for role of secretary general call for financial measures or reparative justice
The three candidates to be the next secretary general of the Commonwealth have called for reparations for countries that were affected by slavery and colonisation.
The candidates from the Gambia, Ghana and Lesotho expressed their support for either financial reparations or “reparative justice”, as they made their pitches to lead the 56-country organisation at a debate hosted by the Chatham House thinktank in London on Wednesday.
Continue reading...Boat full of people hoping to get to Europe overturns and at least 15 known to have died, UN migration agency says
At least 15 people have died and more than 150 are missing after a boat full of people hoping to make it to Europe capsized off the coast of Mauritania, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
About 300 people had boarded the long, wooden, fishing vessel in The Gambia, roughly 850 miles (1,350km) to the south, spending seven days at sea before the boat overturned on Monday, the agency said in a statement.
Continue reading...Campaigners applaud decision not to repeal law in west African country with one of the highest rates of FGM
MPs in the Gambia voted on Monday to retain a law outlawing female genital mutilation (FGM), sparking joy and relief among campaigners.
Thirty-four out of 53 lawmakers voted to maintain the ban, which was introduced in 2015, aid workers told the Guardian. The remainder voted to repeal it.
Continue reading...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...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’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...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...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...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...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...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...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...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...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...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...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...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...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...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.
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