Banjul Mayor Rohey Malick vowed to do her utmost following her election as President of the African Capital Cities Sustainability Forum (ACCSF) for the next 3 years.

The Mayor said while announcing the development on Wednesday: “I wish to thank all the Mayors and Governors from the Capital Cities around the continent for their overwhelming support during the process of voting.

“My thanks and appreciation also go to the government and people of the Gambia for encouraging me to contest for the position. Special thanks must go to the Vice President Her Excellency Mayor Soham El Wardini of Dakar, Senegal and to the second Vice President His Excellency Mayor Mohamed Sadiki of Rabat, The Kingdom of Morocco for their support and acknowledgement.

“My gratitude goes to the people of Banjul for their unflinching support and prayers and also to the secretariat of the African Capital Cities Sustainability Forum for the organization of a hitch-free voting process. I also recognize the support from the UCLG Africa’s West Africa Regional Director with whom this would not have been possible.

“I promise to do my utmost best to ensure that I meet up with the expectations of the organization. I pray God grants us all the wisdom to move our organization from strength to strength. Thank you and may God bless and protect us all. Stay Safe.”

The European Union has launched two new regional projects to support the protection of migrants including children, women and the youth along migratory routes.

The first joint steering committee convened today in the presence of the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, Children, and Social Welfare and senior officials from the Ministries of Health and Interior, according to a statement by EU.

EU said: The first project, implemented by the NGO Save the Children as part of a regional four-country intervention with Terre des Hommes, will improve the protection along the migratory routes of children and young migrants, particularly exposed to physical and sexual violence, abuse, exploitation, trafficking and other violations of their rights. 4,500 children under 18 and young people up to 25 will have access to reinforced institutional and community quality services responding to their protection needs and will benefit from adapted assistance in Soma and Farafenni. The project also supports capacity building and coordination of community and institutional actors.

“The Spanish Red Cross project, implemented by The Gambia Red Cross Society, aims to support and protect the most vulnerable migrants along their migratory route and to provide them with better access to basic services. The project seeks also to strengthen the capacities of institutional and local actors in providing protection services to migrants in need. The project is being implemented in West Coast Region, Kanifing Municipality and Upper River Region. It focuses on basic needs such as health, temporary accommodation, psychosocial support, legal counselling, access to food and basic hygiene items. Three fixed Humanitarian Service Points are installed in each region, and a mobile team is available to assist migrants rescued and intercepted at sea.”

“These two new projects reaffirm the European Union’s enduring commitment to migrant protection in all its dimensions, with a particular focus on the most vulnerable including children, women and youth. We are pleased with the engagement of NGOs and civil society actors in The Gambia in addressing the common challenges to protect the most vulnerable migrants. I wish success to our two implementing partners and thank Gambian authorities for their continued cooperation”, says the European Union Ambassador to the Republic of The Gambia, H.E. Attila LAJOS, according to the statement.

The two new projects complement the existing EU-IOM Joint Initiative for Migrant Protection and Reintegration, which is being implemented in The Gambia since 2017 to support the sustainable reintegration of returning migrants. All three projects, funded by the EU Emergency Trust Fund for Africa, are implemented in close partnership with the Gambian government and relevant authorities at national and regional levels.

By Sarjo Brito

Permanent Secretary Ministry of Fisheries and Water Resources, Dr. Bamba Banja has been put on administrative leave following corruption allegations.

PS Banja for the past week has been the subject of much discussion after an audio linking him to a bribery scandal was leaked. The defiant Permanent Secretary has since denied the allegations and insists that he was not the one on the audio – during an impressive investigation by online investigation outlet Malagen.

A source has now revealed to The Fatu Network Dr. Banja has now been put on administrative leave pending the outcome of police investigation.

Gambians have since taken to social media calling for his sacking and an investigation into the scandal.

Commentator and activist Madi Jobarteh said the news of Banja’s suspension is welcoming.

“Welcome news of the suspension of PS Fisheries Dr. Banja for corruption. But further Minister James Gomez and Golden Lead should also be suspended pending the conclusion of investigation,” Mr Jobarteh said.

By Lamin Njie

Advancement in technology – the internet and by extension social media – has had a big impact on the political and socio-economic life of almost every country in the world in the past decade. America leads in technology advancement; so it would come as little surprise if the impact of the internet/social media is greatest in the country.

What’s the statistics?

According to the Pew Research Centre, around seven-in-ten Americans today use social media to “connect with one another, engage with news content, share information and entertain themselves”. The Washington DC-based think tank revealed at least 70% of Americans today uses some type of social media compared to 5% in 2005 when it began tracking social media use among Americans.

Who uses it?

As more Americans have adopted social media, the social media user base has also grown more representative of the broader population, according to the Pew Research Centre. Young adults were among the earliest social media adopters and continue to use these sites at high levels, but usage by older adults has increased in recent years, the centre said.

Social media and US election

American politicians are nowadays relying heavily on social media to get their messages across to voters. Because of its dependability in terms of audience, various social media platforms are being targeted.

“One of the reasons that the Obama campaign did very well in 2008 was because it was one of the first presidential campaigns ever to make use of a platform called Facebook. Facebook was founded in 2004. It was a relatively new tool still in 2008, but one of Barack Obama’s key strategists was one of the founders of Facebook and he and others helped the campaign understand how to use this platform as an organizing tool that campaigns had never before had a tool that they could use to engage voters so effectively, and a communications tool,” Joanna Weiss, Contributing Editor, Politico Magazine said while speaking to foreign reporters covering next month’s US election on the role of TV Ads and Social Media.

“And some media outlets actually, realizing how big a deal this was, they called 2008 the Facebook election. Little did they know what was coming,” she said.

In 2016, Donald Trump used Twitter in a different way and more effectively than any other candidate had before to bypass the media completely and get his message directly to the people, according to Weiss.

“He obviously is still doing that when he is president, he tweets all day and all night, lots of all caps, lots of exclamation marks, even when he’s in the hospital,” Weiss said, adding platforms such as Instagram are also being used.

The impact on traditional media (newspaper, radio and TV)

The rise of social media and its adoption in terms of advertising is having a big impact on traditional media in America, according to Joanna Weiss. The cost, for example, is far apart.

“A full-page ad in the newspaper or a television commercial is quite expensive. A digital advertisement on a website or a social media platform is much less expensive and easier to target. To give you a benchmark, I think a 30-second spot on prime time network TV would be at about $100,000 for one ad. You can spend so much less on a digital ad. The slide that we looked at before the show, that Facebook ad, that was like a $40,000 ad spend that was much more targeted and had the opportunity to be much more effective and you knew exactly how many people it reached,” Weiss said.

Although Americans’ knack for social media is growing and fast, traditional media still retains some importance in terms of advertising.

“Again, TV ads are still, campaigns are still spending money on TV ads because they do reach a certain demographic. Again, that older demographic, the people who are more likely to be watching cable TV, who tend to be, really at this point, almost 50 and over, if you’re really looking at the TV ratings,” Weiss said.

“There’s still an audience to capture and so there is money to be spent and those ads are very expensive. As digital advertising, not just from political campaigns, but from across the US economy, has migrated as advertising has migrated from TV and newspapers and magazines to the digital world, a lot of media outlets have struggled,” Weiss said.

There’s every indication social media will only continue to grow more and more popular. As this happens, more and more people’s eyeballs and attention would be taken away from traditional media which could present more problems for them.

A teenager in Kaolack, Senegal has survived after receiving medical care at Kaolack Regional Hospital following an electric shock.

The unnamed teenager was left unconscious after an electric shock from his earphones connected to his charging mobile phone, Senego reported on Wednesday. He has now come out of coma.

By Lamin Njie

The trial of Bubacarr Keita accused of rape opened on Wednesday nearly two months since the high court in Bundung freed the 29-year-old businessman on bail.

Mr Keita is being tried on allegations he raped his ex-wife’s 16-year-old sister. He denies the allegation.

The trial officially got underway on Wednesday when state prosecutors called their first witness who began her testimony with who she is.

She told the court in the 20-minute brief session she’s a businesswoman who got married in August 2014.

The first witness would continue her testimony on October 20.

Earlier on, state prosecutors had revealed they’d put in an appeal at the Court of Appeal against the decision by the high court to grant bail to Mr Keita. They then revealed the matter could not proceed because the appellate court wasn’t in possession of the records of proceedings.

Judge Momodou SM Jallow said he was surprised to hear the records of proceedings were not typed for the appellate court’s use.

“I have given my instructions for the records of proceedings to be typed,” the judge told state attorneys – and then assured them they’ll make sure they’re typed for the court’s use.

By Jaka Ceesay Jaiteh and Fatou Camara II

After experiencing a challenging period in the educational sector of the country due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Grade 9 GABECE results are finally out.

ST. Therese’s Upper Basic School emerged first with five of its students having an aggregate 6, the highest achievement. The school was followed by Ndows Comprehensive Upper Basic School and ST. Charles Lwanga Upper Basic School with both schools having three students with an aggregate 6.

According to PS Louie Moses Mendy “more students passed the 2020 Grade Nine GABECE this year compared to last year”.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education has revealed that majority of agregate 6 scorers are girls. Out of 26 students with aggregate 6 score, 16 are girls while 10 are boys.

President Adama Barrow has been advised by a former top military official to take ownership of the country’s men and women in uniform.

During his closing remarks while testifying before the TRRC on Tuesday, former army spokesman Lamin Gano asked the president as the commander-in-chief of the armed forces to take ownership and responsibility of the nation’s defence force and “to shape and mould for their own benefit as well as for the benefit of the country”.

“There are more than 6000 youths(soldiers) out there who are physically and psychologically fit to do any task given to them. They can be an asset to this country in any aspect that the civilian authorities wants” Mr. Gano argued.

These soldiers, Mr. Gano insisted, can play pivotal roles in the realms of international peacekeeping missions, development initiatives like agriculture, engineering and information technology.

Former lieutenant colonel Lamin Gano said ‘yes, counsel’ when TRRC lead counsel Essa Faal insisted former President Yahya Jammeh’s HIV/AIDS cure was false.

The former leader stunned the world in 2007 when he proclaimed discovery of a cure for HIV/AIDS. He rejected requests to share with world details of his cure, although it involved patients eating banana and drinking liquids.

His one-time top aide Lamin Gano squared off with Essa Faal on Tuesday in a showdown that spanned one hour and forty minutes – one that sometimes saw jokes deployed.

“Yes, counsel”, the former president’s former ADC responded when persistent Essa Faal put to him the former president’s cure was false.

Gano who served as former President Jammeh’s ADC for 18 months had all throughout stood his ground in avoiding the word ‘false’.

“My opinion was that it failed, it was not sucessful,” Mr Gano told Essa Faal on occasion.

“And because it failed, it was false?” an insisting Essa Faal said in his final question.

“Yes, counsel,” Gano replied.

Former army lieutenant colonel Lamin Gano has commenced testifying before the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission.

A former ADC to former president Yahya Jammeh, Mr Gano had on Monday announced he would be appearing before the TRRC.

His testimony is centered around the former president’s HIV/AIDS treatment.

The ministry of health has revealed a delegation will travel to Senegal to for a learning mission over coronavirus.

“A delegation from the Ministry of Health’s COVID-19 Response team will be travelling to Dakar, Senegal to learn and share best practices of effectively operating an Incident Management System,” the ministry said in its national situation report that was released on Monday.

It comes even as the ministry revealed the country’s coronavirus cases now stands at 3,636 following the discovery of four new cases.

The Gambia government has been asked to initiate full enforcement of the laws banning FGM and child marriage in the country.

The National Human Rights Commission in a statement on the occasion of this year’s International Day of the Girl-Child called on the government put an end to harmful practices that hold girls back from reaching their full potential.

NHRC said: “As we approach the 25th anniversary of the historic Beijing Platform and Declaration for action, NHRC calls on The Gambia Government to renew its commitment to the girl child and invest constructively in their health, education, training and safety, and put an end to harmful practices that hold girls back from reaching their full potential.

“Specifically, NHRC urges The Government to: initiate full enforcement and implementation of the laws banning FGM and child marriage as part of its obligation to fulfil the fundamental human rights of girls; prosecute alleged perpetrators of rape, sexual harassment and sexual abuse in order to end impunity and build confidence in the justice system for many girls and their families who may be reluctant to report such cases; review the Children’s Act to include ratification of laws against all forms of discrimination against girls including discrimination in education, skills development and training; promote girls’ awareness of and participation in social, economic and political life…”