WHAT YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW

With Amara Thoronk

Has it ever crossed your mind that there are people who naturally live with only two toes? Well meet the VODOMA people of Zimbabwe who mysteriously and naturally have only two toes but are however not disabled.

They live in the Kanyemba region in the north of Zimbabwe, especially in the Urungwe and Sipolilo districts around the basins of Mwazamutanda River. They are uniquely traditional hunter-gatherers indigenous to Zimbabwe.

The vadoma speak the Dema language, which is closely related to the dominant Shona language of Zimbabwe and largely comprehensible to those who speak the Korekore and Tande Shona dialects. Living alongside Shona and Kunda people in Kanyemba, they also speak Korekore Shona and Kunda.

According to vadoma tradition, their ancestors emerged from a baobab tree. Upon descending from it, they walked upright to hunt and gather the fruits of the land. The name vadoma is also used in the Zambezi region for a semi-mythical people characterized as magical, capricious, hard to find, and living among the trees. This may refer to Khoisan hunter-gatherers who preceded the migration of the Bantu Shona into the Zambezi Valley, and the vadoma are possibly related to this earlier population. There is this rumored belief that the vadoma are capable of disappearing in the forest and performing magic.

Historically, the vadoma mainly live in the mountains, living a largely nomadic lifestyle of hunting, fishing, trapping, honey hunting, and gathering wild fruits and roots. Before the European colonization of Africa, the vadoma also resisted incorporation into the Korekore Shona kingdom of Mutapa, which resulted in little access to fertile land. Land reform after Zimbabwe’s independence did not change this, despite pressure from the Mugabe government, and the vadoma’s continuing dispossession has made them Zimbabwe’s only non-agricultural society, leading to stereotypes as “Stone Age cave-dwellers”.

The mountain homeland of the vadoma has now become the Chewore Safari Area. In recent years, vadoma have been threatened by game rangers due to a crackdown on poaching. Many abandoned their hunter-gatherer lifestyle and moved to the lowlands. Today, though they have little contact with the majority populace, many vadoma families live settled lives as semi-foragers, building houses on wooden platforms to avoid predators. During rainfall, they cover the shelters with thatching. vadoma are also reluctant to wear textile fabrics. Recently, the Seventh-Day Adventist Church built Mariga Primary School to educate vadoma children.

According to science, such condition is caused by ectrodactyly in which the middle three toes are absent and the two outer ones are turned in, resulting in the tribe being known as the “two-toed” or “ostrich-footed” tribe. This is an autosomal dominant condition resulting from a single mutation on chromosome number. It is reported that those with the condition are not handicapped and are well integrated into the tribe. While possibly an aid in tree climbing, the condition prevails because of a small genetic pool among the vadoma and is propagated by the tribal law that forbids members to marry outside the group.

Their isolation from other people has made them develop and maintain ectrodactyly, and their comparatively small gene pool has resulted in the condition being much more frequent than elsewhere.

Monty Mobile has come to the rescue of Comium by committing to knock off all arrears the crisis-gripped company owes.

Monty Mobile is the new investor of Comium and officials announced at a news conference on Wednesday, the investor has now committed to pay off the nearly 70 million dalasis in license and other fees.

“As we speak now, the investor in the midst of us now just texted me and said if PURA is willing to lift the suspension, they’re going to pay everything now,” Lamin Drammeh, Comium’s director of technical told reporters on Wednesday.

Comium had earlier on on Wednesday issued a statement expressing surprise of its suspension by PURA even amid what the company said was ‘dues settlement’ and ‘promising’ negotiations.

“This surprising news came after thorough positive meetings that were held between Comium new management and PURA, in which Comium and its new international investor showed a sign of goodwill by paying the amount of 14,000,000 Dalasi of its gross dues, and also expressed its determination to pay out the remaining amount, without even relating this payment to its due receivable of 21,000,000 Dalasi from Gamtel,” Comium had said in a statement.

Comium’s staff burst into cheers after their technical director made the announcement of the company’s investor committing to settle the company’s arrears.

Comium officials used the news conference to call PURA to lift the suspension on the company.

Banjul Mayor Rohey Lowe on Wednesday called on the people of North Bank region and Ndungu Kebbeh in particular to vote for UDP.

Mayor Lowe made the call during UDP’s meeting in the North Bank region village as part of the party’s tour of the nation.

The Mayor said: “I appeal to you the people of North Bank particularly people of Ndungu Kebbeh to come out in your numbers and vote for United Democratic Party.

“Because whether you vote for United Democratic Party, the party will only go forward and if you do not we will still go forward. So United Democratic Party will win so come out and vote [for UDP].”

Mayor Lowe also called on citizens who say UDP is a Mandinka party to stop peddling such claims as they are untrue.

Kitabu Fatty has said his PDP did not reach out to NPP instead it was the NPP that invited them for a partnership.

A screenshot of a WhatsApp conversation between Kitabu and NPP’s Dr Demba Sabally emerged online on Tuesday suggesting Kitabu reached out to NPP for a political partnership.

Kitabu told The Fatu Network his PDP did not reach out to National People’s Party.

He said: “We didn’t reach out to them. They called us for partnership, we had a meeting, series of meeting but after thorough consultation with my people we realised it’s not necessary for us to partner with them.”

He added in video message: “I am surprised. I think when someone is called a Dr, he should be able to keep secrets. But I will not blame you since during politics people tend to forget about ethics. And it think it’s out of desperation following our Buffer Zone meeting. But I had a meeting with many parties. A lot of parties invited me and I sat with them and talked with them. But I realised it’s Essa Faal that I can work with. With his principles, I believe he can take charge of Gambia’s affairs.”

Dr Sabally reacts

NPP’s Dr Demba Sabally clarified that he never shared any conversation with Kitabu online, instead he showed his conversation with Kitabu to an NPP member Yankuba Dampha only. He said Dampha was insisted people around the president were blocking people from meeting the president.

Dr Sabally said: “I responded to Yankuba, I told him I spoke with Kitabu and what Kitabu wanted was to partner with NPP and for us, as a principle, we cannot partner with somebody who is not a registered political party.

“And secondly if we partner with all these political parties that have very small footprint, it’s just going to create a lot of obligations on the president after the election. That if Kitabu wants to come and join NPP, we will highly welcome him and definitely take him to the president. He said ‘no…’ and I said ‘let me show you my conversation with Kitabu’.

“So I sent him the conversation and I also responded Kitabu by saying ‘I will update the principal and once he is around from URR I will get back to you’. So I was trying to prove to Yankuba. But Kitabu did not want to join NPP, Kitabu wanted his PDP to partner with NPP. I sent this to Yankuba Dampha as an individual. I will never post such on the social media.”

Comium has issued a statement expressing surprise at PURA’s decision to suspend the company despite ‘dues settlement’ and ‘promising negotiations’.

Information Minister Ebrima Sillah on Monday suspended Comium after advice from PURA regarding the company’s inability to settle outstanding license and spectrum fees.

A statement by the company on Wednesday said: “Comium who recently acquired a new international investor with whom it signed a management agreement in the objective of resolving all the current financial and network issues including bringing 4G and 5G to Gambia at a later stage, was shocked by PURA’s decision to suspend the network on October 5, 2021.

“This surprising news came after thorough positive meetings that were held between Comium new management and PURA, in which Comium and its new international investor showed a sign of goodwill by paying the amount of 14,000,000 Dalasi of its gross dues, and also expressed its determination to pay out the remaining amount, without even relating this payment to its due receivable of 21,000,000 Dalasi from Gamtel.

“Despite the dues from Gamtel , Comium new management and its international investor are still committing to proceed immediately in settling the remaining, and they shall provide within one month period, a full-year of network upgrade plan; provided that PURA stops immediately the network suspension and will not tie them to any conditions that would jeopardize the kickoff of the new era of telecommunication in the company and the country.

“Noting that the new move of Comium will not only improve the economic situation in Gambia with the new investment but will also create additional job openings increasing the existing Comium workforce by at least 30%, while safeguarding the main source of living of the current 125 employed families in the company.”

By Amara Thoronka

President Julius Maada Bio has celebrated this year’s World Teachers’ Day at the presidential national best teacher award ceremony, organized on Tuesday 5th October 2021 by the country’s Teaching Service Commission.

In his keynote address the President said:

“If a bare-footed five-year-old village boy, who stared in awe and with great curiosity on his first day at school, today holds degrees from institutions of higher learning, can speak English and French, use technology, think critically, interact freely with world leaders, and is today President of this Republic of Sierra Leone, it is all because of the sacrifice, care, nurture, and patience of teachers.”

He added that as a President, he has prioritised investing in people because it is the only enduring, inclusive, and sustainable pathway to developing the country, noting that central to that investment was the free quality education that was universally and equally accessible to all.

“Therefore, on this day set aside as World Teachers’ Day, it is all appropriate to celebrate, to honour, and to thank every teacher for all they have done. Through war and through pestilence, teachers have been at the very heart of our nation’s resilience and recovery. Even during the COVID-19 pandemic, they kept schools open, imparted knowledge with characteristic selflessness, patiently prepared students for transitional examinations, and continued to mould and open minds as they are wont,” he noted.

President Bio said it is important to honour those teachers who might have been mocked, ridiculed, and under-appreciated for choosing a profession that did not bestow instant monetary wealth upon them.

“Today is about recognising communicators, influencers, opinion makers, caregivers; people who serve with empathy; who mould character, instill discipline and respect; who empower; who give passions, imaginations, hopes, and dreams an opportunity to blossom,” he noted, adding that the day was also about thanking those who when children had doubts, made mistakes, were unsure and frustrated, would patiently stand by and assure them that the best was always in them.

Giving an overview of the selection process that led to the winners of the Presidential National Teachers Awards, the Chief Executive Officer for Teach For Salone, Madam Josephine Saidu, said she was honoured and delighted to have been part of the selection process, saying that many stakeholders like members of Council of Principals, Members of Parliament, the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists, the Inter-religious Council and chiefdom stakeholders were actively involved in the selection process which she described as “very transparent and credible.”

The World Bank Country Manager, Abdu Muwonge, expressed gratitude and congratulated the government for what he called the huge accomplishments in the education sector, adding that the achievement of the country in transforming education was being echoed everywhere around the world.

“It is important to note that as we gather here today to honour teachers, parents too have a role to play to keep the children in school. Teachers have played a critical role in this country, he stated.

The World Bank Country boss affirmed that the bank and other partners would continue to work together to improve the condition of service for the teachers, and make the learning environment more comfortable for all actors.

The Minister of Basic and Senior Secondary School Education, Dr Moinina David Sengeh, told the gathering that the award ceremony was a fulfillment of a manifesto promise in 2018 by President Julius Maada Bio, when he was a presidential aspirant.

Dr Sengeh added that since the SLPP came to power in 2018, a lot of transformation has happened in the education sector, of which he said there had been more than a 30% increase in enrolment and about 22% annual budget allocation to strengthen education in the country.

“Our work and the progress have attracted more funding. Very recently the Global Education Summit in London, Sierra Leone is now eligible for a $40 million grant for the education sector. We have trained more teachers, recruited more teachers and we have empowered Inspectors of Schools to monitor teachers’ performance. We have done a lot, and more is to be done,” he assured.

World Teachers’ Day, also known as International Teachers Day, is an international day held annually on 5 October. It was established in 1994 and commemorates the signing of the 1966 UNESCO/ILO Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers, a standard-setting instrument that addresses the status and situations of teachers around the world.

A professor at De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) has announced the launch of a $1.3 million project to help bring better education, job creation, entrepreneurship and, ultimately, sustained economic growth to The Gambia

Momodou Sallah, Professor of Teaching and Learning and the Director of the Centre for Academic Innovation at DMU, has formed a partnership with the Gambian Government, which is promoting the importance of entrepreneurship, the enhancement of scientific research and technology, and the developing of skills among Gambian youth.

DMU will introduce entrepreneurship and employability programmes as well as an ‘innovation hub’ and a placement and internship unit.

DMU will also act as a consultancy service for the provision of lectures and making sure courses meet the highest standards.

The work will be with the Emerging Centre of Excellence on Science, Engineering and Technology for Entrepreneurship (ECESETE) under the auspices of The Gambia’s Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Technology.

Youth unemployment is a major concern for The Gambia and it has contributed to the large-scale migration of Gambians to other African nations and continents to find work.

DMU has extensive experience and an excellent reputation for working with industry and cultivating entrepreneurs.

So the university will bring those skills to ECESETE via an Incubation and Innovation Hub, to commercialise products which can then be developed and taken to market.

DMU will aim to make young people more employable in The Gambia by training them as the entrepreneurs of the future.

Professor Sallah said the development was both exciting and poignant time for him as he was born and raised in The Gambia and is aware of the help his home nation needs to boost the prospects of young people.

He said: “I grew up in The Gambia and I had to experience the difficulties involved in education and making progress.

“I am a professor now and to be able to use my position and my privilege and my knowledge to build something better in The Gambia is brilliant. That is what motivates me.

“I see myself as a scholar-activist. I cannot sit in an ivory tower and pontificate about the situations I have come from. I need to do something about it

“We will see 60 engineers come through these courses each year and each of them will be encouraged to use science, engineering and technology for social good and help develop the economy. Imagine the impact that that would have, not just for The Gambia but for the rest of Africa.”

The role of DMU will be to act as a consultancy service for the provision of lectures, guidance on quality assurance, entrepreneurship, and employability programs at ECESETE. There will also be a ‘disruptive lab’ that will pick apart current business methods and rebuild them into something better.

“If we are going to change things, we need to disrupt the methods we are using, break them down completely and see what we can do better”, Professor Sallah explained. “It can be a very uncomfortable process but it changes the mindset of everybody and helps us focus on how to make improvements.

“Education has to be responsive to the environment it is in if we are to progress. DMU has laid out in its strategic plan for the next few years that we are to be an empowering university. This is exactly what DMU is doing here in The Gambia with this partnership. We are empowering people to make a difference in their country.”

Credit:DMU

UDP leader Ousainou Darboe on Tuesday warned against complacency on the part of his supporters regarding the December presidential election.

UDP held a meeting in Juffureh on Tuesday as part of the party’s nationwide tour.

And leader Darboe while addressing party faithful said: “We’re impressed with what we have seen in Juffureh but we must not be complacent and believe that we have won.

“Let’s take it that those we are running against are ahead of us. And we will run after them until we get to them and move past them. And we can do that before the 4th of December.”

UDP’s tour continues on Wednesday.

The Gambia’s first ever export to the English Premier League Modou Secka Barrow arrived at the Scorpions camp in El Jadida at about 3pm local time, after more than 24 hours of travelling.

The Joenbok Hyundai star is making his comeback in a year having missed the March and June windows due to family and personal commitments.

He would’ve missed the September friendlies as well had the camp gone ahead having been granted permission to engineer a move away from South Korea but the former Swansea and Leeds star stayed put.

The 28-year-old took part in the Scorpions second training session of the day which was a recovery session involving some light exercises. After the drill exercise led by fitness coaches, Tom Saintfiet put his players throughout their paces with 11 aside consisting of two sets of teams.

UDP leader Ousainou Darboe is currently in Bakalarr Madina in Nuimi to ‘greet’ the marabout and ask for his prayers.

Mr Darboe briefly addressed a crowd that where he vowed to construct Bakalarr’s road once he gets elected in December.

Mr Darboe said, as broadcast live by UDP TV and Media: “I want to let everyone know that on the 5th of December when it’s announced that Ousainou Darboe is the winner, the construction of this road will begin the next Monday.

“There is no need for the people of Bakalarr to say they need a road. Anyone who is here knows the state of this road.

“When I am sworn in, the person who will be the minister of finance and works will begin work.”

Independent presidential hopeful Essa Faal has insisted Gambians will take back their country come December 4.

Mr Faal made this statement during his huge rally held at Buffer Zone over the weekend.

He said: “The important thing for us is come December 4, we take back our country, do a turnaround and take the government from people whom you know are incompetent, do not have the knowledge, do not have the power and put the government in the hands of those who have the knowledge, the power and can take this country and build roads, give jobs to the youths, introduce medical insurance and buying ambulances and medical equipment instead of pickup trucks for campaign.”

Mr Faal campaign for president has only entered its sixth week but observers say the former TRRC lead counsel is becoming more and more popular among the voters.

Two hundred and fifty Gambian army officers have left the country for Turkey for training ahead of a UN mission deployment.

The military in a statement Tuesday said the troops on last Friday had a pep-talk with defence minister Sheikh Omar Faye and army chief Yakuba Drammeh.

On Sunday, the soldiers flew out to Turkey in a Turkish military aircraft. They will be in Turkey till December.

“This training arrangement is in fulfilment of a promise made by the Turkish government to train 500 GAF personnel in Turkey. The training package will fulfil part of a series of requirements amongst others that the proposed Gambian Contingent QRF II and QRF III have been scheduled to undergo prior to deployment,” the military said.

The training will prepare the troops for deployment as a Quick Reaction Force (QRF) to a UN mission, the military added.

The Scorpions have held its first training session in El Jadida, Morocco, as part of its training camp in the North African country. The team trained at 10am local time, 9am in Banjul. The one-hour training session is the first of two sessions planned for today.

Amongst the players that took part in today’s first session were the latest newcomer Saidy Janko and the returning trio of Sheriff Sinyan, Ibou Touray and Ebou Adams.

23 of the 26 invited players are already in camp and were all part of today’s session. The initial training was mainly some recovery sessions and drills. Ablie Jallow, Dembo Darboe and Modou Barrow will arrive today and take part in Wednesday’s exercise ahead of Thursday’s first match with Morocco’s local base national team who themselves are preparing for the FIFA Arab World Cup in Qatar later this year.

This camp is part of The Gambia’s technical preparations ahead of its maiden African Cup of Nations match in Cameroon early next year. The Scorpions will also play against Sierra Leone and South Sudan. Gambia, Leone Stars and the Bright Stars are all based at the same Pullman Hotel.

Baboucarr Camara

UDP leader Ousainou Darboe warned on Tuesday politicians are ‘opponents and not enemies’.

Mr Darboe began his tour of the nation on Monday to meet citizens and talk to them about his five-point agenda.

He shared a five-second video on Twitter on Tuesday where he is seen waving gesturing at a group of people standing in the veranda of an NPP office.

And Mr Darboe insisted: “We are opponents and not enemies, we are one people from the same branches of this nation and politics should never be a divider. I waved and cheered at our compatriots at their NPP bureau in Barra.”

The National Human Rights Commission is investigating claims officers of the Drug Law Enforcement Agency assaulted a 24-year-old citizen.

Sara Jawla spent two days in hospital after sustaining injuries during his arrest by officers of DLEAG in Brikamaba last month. Jawla was allegedly dragged by a moving vehicle leaving him injured on his buttocks and heels.

DLEAG spokesman Ousman Saidyba confirmed to The Fatu Network the NHRC has now started investigating the matter.

A statement he shared with The Fatu Network said: “Concerning the alleged assault and abuse incident at Brikamaba, what we gathered at preliminary stages from the operatives is that they conducted an operation in a hotspot area in Brikamaba – Darslameh Junction. This area is a popular joint used to openly abuse and sell drugs.

“After several complaints from residents and the public, the officers on that faithful day earlier arrested one Musa Jawla with five (5) parcels and two (2) wraps of suspected cannabis. As they proceeded, they encountered a person later identified as Sara Jawla alias legal. He was carrying a multi-colored bag on his back. He tried to run away but was apprehended by the operatives.

“Thereafter, a search was conducted on him and they found eighty-eight (88) wraps of suspected Cannabis Sativa. The officers then decided to take him into custody. As they try to get him on board the vehicle, Sara faced the boys gathered there and said that they should not stand by looking while the officers take him into custody. The officers said that at this point, a push and pull ensued and they faced serious resistance and obstruction. They were pelted with stones from different directions. The vehicle that they used for the said operation even sustained damages. Musa Jawla who was earlier arrested with five (5) parcels and two (2) wraps of suspected Cannabis escaped from lawful custody during the commotion. He is one person who has two pending case with the agency. One case is currently ongoing in court while he is awaiting trial for the other case.

“Sara Jawla was however taken into custody. The officers said that they could not detain him at Brikamaba because the mob chased them up to the station pelting them with stones. He was later taken to Bansang Hospital where he was admitted for two days. When he was released on the third day, the officers opened bail for him and once he was able to fulfill the bail conditions, he was granted bail.

“The National Human Rights Council is presently investigating the matter and as such, we may not want to comment further on this issue until they are done with their investigations. I Am sure that once they are done with their probe, they will share their findings with all concerned parties for further action.”

By CGTN Africa & TFN

Facebook along with its Instagram and WhatsApp services began returning online Monday after a massive and lengthy outage that added to the social network’s woes.

Facebook’s family of apps essentially “disappeared” from the internet for several hours after a traffic routing problem that made the sites unreachable by users, according to Cloudflare, a website security company.

Facebook struggled to end an hours-long outage that potentially hit tens of millions of users across its platforms, including Instagram and WhatsApp.

Tracker Downdetector said it had received 10.6 million reports of problems ranging from the United States and Europe to Colombia and Singapore, with trouble first popping up around 15:45 GMT.

Roughly seven hours later, the services began returning online.

In The Gambia, there has been palpable excitement among users.

“We’re back finally,” one person wrote.

Another said: “Can you all see me here, someone please poke me so I know Facebook is working.”

But there are those who believe the outage was not bad at all.

One person said: “It was so relaxing, at least we were chatting like face to face chat for hours which is very difficult to hve now a days.”

GSM company Comium has been suspended after failing to fully pay outstanding license and Spectrum fees.

Comium owes over 65 million dalasis in license and spectrum fees and over three million dalasis in international voice gateway. The company has only been able to make partial payments.

On Monday, Information Minister Ebrima Sillah wrote to the crisis-battered company and notifying the company of his decision to suspend it.

“Effective 5th October 2021, you shall not provide any services incidental to any of the licences you hold,” Mr Sillah told the company after highlighting PURA’s determination to suspend the company. The suspension will run through November 4.

Comium has not responded to invitation for comment by The Fatu Network.

By DailyMail

Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp all remain down in a four-hour-long global outage that experts say was caused by an internal error on Monday morning.

Between 11.50am EST and 11.52am EST, Facebook made a series of updates to its border gateway protocol (BGP) which caused it to ‘disappear’ from the internet.

The BGP allows for the exchange of routing information on the internet and takes people to the websites they want to access.

Facebook’s changes included withdrawals which removed its properties from the domain naming system it operates and essentially made it impossible for anyone to connect to the sites because they could no longer be found online.

Facebook is yet to explain why the changes were made or why they caused such outages.

A New York Times reporter tweeted that staff at an unspecified Facebook office were unable to use their keycards to gain access to the premises on Monday.

It’s unclear if that is related to the outage or not.

NetBlocks, which tracks internet outages and their impact, estimate the outage has already cost the global economy $160m (£117 million).

Experts say that even once the problem is fixed, it will be a nightmare task rebooting the system because it is so large.

The scandal-battered company’s shares had dipped by 5 percent on Monday amid the outage and after a whistleblower went public on Sunday night with claims of how it regularly places profit above morals.

CloudFare’s Chief Technology Office John Graham-Cunningham tweeted on Monday that Facebook accidentally ‘disappeared’ from the internet after making a ‘flurry’ of updates to its BGP – Border Gateway Protocol.

‘Between 15:50 UTC and 15:52 UTC Facebook and related properties disappeared from the Internet in a flurry of BGP updates,’ he said.

Facebook does not use CloudFare but it runs one of the world’s largest DNS resolvers. When sites go down because of failures in DNS systems, CloudFare tries to repair them.

Usman Muzaffar, SVP of engineering at CloudFare, explained to DailyMail.com: ‘Humans access information online through domain names, like facebook.com and DNS converts it into numbers, called an IP address, computers use.

‘From what we understand of the actual issue —it is a globalized BGP configuration issue. In our experience, these usually are mistakes, not attacks.

‘Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) is the routing protocol for the Internet. Much like the post office processing mail, BGP picks the most efficient routes for delivering Internet traffic.

‘Today, the directions for how to get to Facebook’s DNS server’s addresses weren’t available (and seem to still be unavailable).

‘Without being able to contact the DNS servers, visitors trying to reach a Facebook property, like facebook.com, will not get an answer and so the page won’t load.’

Facebook has not commented on the cause of the outage.

‘We’re aware that some people are having trouble accessing our apps and products.

‘We’re working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible, and we apologize for any inconvenience,’ Andy Stone, the company’s director of communications, said.

Initially, there were reports that AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile were all down too, however those reports stemmed from people being unable to access Facebook-run apps on their mobile devices.

Kevin King, Director of Communications at Verizon, said there was no outage with the network but that it appeared as though some users were having difficulty accessing certain apps or sites on their Verizon devices.

Almost all of those who reported problems had issues with mobile internet, and not with making calls or texts.

Cyber security specialist Jake Moore said there is a ‘chance’ the issue could be related to a cyber attack.

He PA: ‘There have been many reports and I’m struggling to find out exactly what has happened- I’m reading it could be DNS related, which means there is an issue with the connection not knowing where to go to your device.

‘It could well be a human error or a software bug lurking in the shadows but whatever it is Facebook needs to do its best to mitigate the problem of causing more panic about this.

‘The biggest problem is fears over a cyber attack but as we saw from Fastly in the summer I would hedge my bets on that not being the case as we’re talking about one of the biggest companies in the world, but there’s always a chance.’

Adam Leon Smith, of BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT and a software testing expert, said: ‘The outage is caused by changes made to the Facebook network infrastructure. Many of the recent high-profile outages have been caused by similar network level events.

‘It is reported by unidentified Facebook sources on Reddit that the network changes have also prevented engineers from remotely connecting to resolve the issues, delaying resolution.

‘Notably, many organizations now define their physical infrastructure as code, but most do not apply the same level of testing rigor when they change that code, as they would when changing their core business logic.’

Mayor Rohey Lowe was among supporters of Ousainou Darboe who welcomed the UDP leader in Banjul to begin his tour of the nation.

Clad in yellow, Mayor Lowe and UDP supporters chanted ‘weew Darboe’ as the UDP leader’s car entered the ferry. There was much singing and dancing.

Mr Darboe will spend the next two weeks touring the nation, a tour that comes exactly two months to the December presidential election.

Mr Darboe will contest the election and will use to the tour to interact with voters and sell his party’s five-point agenda to them.

Police Interventio Unit officers on Monday attempted to remove officials of Global HOMM from their Bijilo property as uncertainty continued to grip the property.

Global Home of Medical Mission is an international NGO seeking to build a hospital in the country but their Bijilo property has continued to be in the hands of the state since it was illegally seized by former President Jammeh.

Police anti-crime recently vacated the property but the state has expressed unwillingness to give the property to its rightful onwers, Global HOMM. It has been revealed the state wants to hand the property to a private investor to build a hotel there as part of the OIC summit in The Gambia.

An official from the Sheriff Division on Monday accompanied Global HOMM officials to hand over the property to them. But police came led by Inspector Hatab Bah and attempted to remove them from the property.

The police later abandoned the act after receiving a call that the property had been handed over to Global HOMM by the Sheriff Division.