Four new COVID-19 related deaths have been recorded bringing the total number of deaths to 81, according to the ministry of health on Thursday.
“Samples from all 4 deceased cases (3 males and 1 female) were collected posthumously,” the health ministry said.
It added: “Out of the 6 posthumous sample results received, 1 returned positive, 3 tested inconclusive and 2 were negative for COVID-19.”
Army colonel Assimi Goita has been introduced as Mali’s new military strongman after a mutiny forced President Boubacar Keita out of power.
“Let me introduce myself, I am Colonel Assimi Goita, chairman of the National Committee for the salvation of the People,” he said Wednesday.
He led the coup that ousted the president.
There’s still no word on what will happen to Mr Keita going forward.
Coup leaders in Mali faced mounting international pressure on Wednesday, a day after they ousted Mr Keita following months of protests.
The African Union (AU) suspended Mali and joined Europe and the US in demanding the new-born junta free the 75-year-old president, Prime Minister Boubou Cisse and other leaders taken captive.
The coup chiefs, meanwhile, called on the public to return to normal life, warned against acts of “vandalism” and threatened to punish any soldier found guilty of extortion. (Agency Report)
It is logically incoherent to argue that politicians will only be noble if they stop seeing power as a reason for their politics. As head of a political party, PPP’s Papa Njie, must understand that any political movement, whether noble or ignoble, needs ambition, and power, to make a practical change! This is why I was shocked when I saw the PPP leader’s statement on today’s issue of the Standard: “Only Jawara’s Legacy can Save The Gambia.”
In his attempt to glorify his party’s founding father, Sir Dawda Jawara: “someone who will not want to harm anybody” Mr. Njie exposed how Sir Dawda was comfortable and never wanted to disrupt the status quo; a corrupt political class, a sclerotic bureaucracy, a heartless economy, a divided and distracted public that had gone untreated for more than two decades. Our people had learned to live, uncomfortably, with the manipulative political equation of the Jawara Administration.
Jawara’s Legacy cannot save the Gambia, he left a bad political tradition; with the advantages of incumbency; he had state resources at his disposal, using government vehicles for campaigning purposes, and his unflinching encouragement of traditional authorities to exert pressure on electorates to support his administration.
How can a legacy of political correctness, economic downturn, and deliberate control of the state media save a country? This was a government that used libel lawsuits to oppress prominent journalists sending many to Mile 2 central prisons.
President Jawara’s original intent was not to be a “unifier” as Popa Njie suggested!
No! Jawara’s style of politics was based on coalitions, because he thought he needed to form alliances with the urban Wollofs and Aku who dominated the bureaucracy. He sought to please these people and coax them to be on his side because, otherwise, their administrative skills could used to undermine his crumbling government. It was political.
It’s a glaring fact that under Jawara’s Administration the poor majority of Gambians were forced to make the choice to sell their voters’ cards in exchange for resources needed for daily sustenance. Voter – buying became a booming business for politicians, in the Gambia.
Jawara’s administration was a moon-walk; it gave an impression that things were moving forward, when they were actually getting backward. We don’t need that legacy to salvage us! We need a serious leader with impeccable moral standing, intellectual apptitude, and a blueprint that suits our downright realities, to save our country!
Bub S Njie,
Research Assistant,
Centre for Research and Policy Development.
It was the great poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, who famously penned this reassuring truth:
“Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time;”
This is the truth about all great men, but more so for those who took the decision to work and contribute to human progress through the profession of teaching. The late Imam Tafsirr Gaye has surely left his own footprints on the sands of our times and many of us will continue to see his brilliant footprints as guiding lighthouses and beacons of hope as we take our own paths towards self-actualisation and service to humanity.
The late Imam, a graduate of the prestigious Al-Ahzar University in Egypt, was a teacher of Islamic studies at many institutions, including, the famous Saint Augustine’s High School where his path crossed with that of my good friend Ebou Ndure (currently serving as Imam in Ireland).
Ebou and I met through a mutual friend, Omar Mbowe, while we both did our Advanced level studies in Banjul. At the time my desire for further Quranic studies was being kindled as I compared the effort I put into my regular academic studies against time spent on religious studies. I arrived at the conclusion that investing a maximum of 10 percent of the time and energy I devoted to school into the study of the Holy Quran would yield immeasurable dividend. My firenship with Ebou Ndure became the catalyst for me to embark on that Journey.
At the time, Ebou was very close to Imam Gaye and he was part of a group that would converge at the Imam’s house on weekly basis on Thursdays and Fridays in the evening at the Imam’s residence in Banjul, Lancaster street. I lived at Boxbar road and having finished my 6th form at Gambia High, I became a regular visitor for these sessions of studies and lectures with the Imam. Thursdays were for studying the Quran, especially for novices like myself; and on Fridays we would gather and the Imam would do a lecture-cum-sermon.
There were senior ‘talibes’ (students) there as well. Ustass Abdourahman Sowe was one of them; he was specifically assigned by the late Imam to give me intensive lessons in Arabic phonics so that I could speed up my learning of the Quran. By this time I had had many forays into Quranic studies but all such studies were on part time, mainly during weekends and evenings after school on week days. I had the privilege of studying with such luminaries like the late Pa Ablie of Primet Street, the late Ustass Babacarr Njone, and the master of the traditional Quranic school in Lamin, the late Jamanty Jammeh. May Allah grant them all His eternal Grace and Mercy.
My studies with Imam Tafsir Gaye became a huge catalyst for the life-long Quranic studies I was to embark on. After a few weeks, I had grasped a good mastery of the Arabic phonics and with encouragement and consistent support from my friend Imam Ebou Ndure I gradually became quite well efficient with recitation of the Holy Quran in the original Arabic text.
It was a blessing to sit before Imam Tafsir Gaye and listen to him preach about Islam. His understanding of the religion, coupled with his eloquence and peerless wit was awe-inspiring. He always had a unique way of explaining the deeper meanings of the Quranic verses. His insight into current issues were also enlightening. Throughout those lesssons, his love of the late Imam Ratib Abdoulie Jobe always manifested itself.
Anytime I listened to Imam Gaye make a speech, my respect and admiration for his intellectual dexterity increased. He always rose to the occasion with the perfect witty aphorisms to match the situation being addressed. And thus I was as much amazed by what he said as I was curious about how much more wisdom I could still tap from his inexorable intellectual endowment.
This morning, I went into my electronic archives to retrieve the video of my graduation from the Gambia’s first ever university programme. Imam Tafsirr Gaye was the one to have had the honour to bless that occasion. Clad in a gown, he delivered a beautiful prayer that would touch even those of us who could not understand the Arabic language. He had a gift of oratory; his words came out with a unique cadence.
My first encounter with the late Imam was an occasion about the Quran; my own reinvented journey with the Greatest Book of all times. My last encounter with him was also about the Quran. We had converged at the residence of the late legendary football hero Biri to recite the Quran as part of the rites of his demise. Let me clarify here that the late Imam was properly clad with a protective mask and the gathering was not a big one.
I took several pictures of him from a distance. It was a pleasure to see him hold the Quran, reading it. And he was granted the honour of reciting the prayer that caps off the recitation of the ‘Qamil’ called the ‘khatm’; at the end of the ceremony the Imam Ratib of Banjul, Imam Cherno Kah, gave some words of advice concerning the need for unity in the country as he decried inflammatory and derogatory speeches in our current political debates. He then asked Imam Gaye to also give some words of advice regarding that matter.
I was all ears when Imam Tafsir Gaye started speaking. And surely I was not disappointed. He reiterated the Imam Ratib’s admonition and then made reference to verses 13-14 of the 17th chapter of the Quran: “And We have made every man’s actions to cling to his neck, and We will bring forth to him on the resurrection day a book which he will find wide open: Read your book; your own self is sufficient as a reckoner against you this day.”
You just had to hear the late Imam’s inspiring enunciation of the foregoing pair of verses in Arabic to be able to fully appreciate what he was saying. Yet his explanation of the first verse in Wolof was equally amazing. He warned us that the modern microphones that media practitioners would clip to our shirts close to our necks is quite emblematic of the statement “And We have made every man’s actions to cling to his neck…” he then advised that people should speak words of truth with decency and respect.
His speech was so touching and profound that I wanted to write an essay about it. My reverence and love for the Quran would not allow me to jump into such an assignment without some more research. I went home and recited the full Chapter (Surah Isra) from which the late Imam quoted that verse just to have a better appreciation. I shared the relevant verse on social media and I kept meditating about it but never got to have enough time to write an essay.
As the late Imam Tafsir Gaye begins his journey into the next world, his Quranic quotations and witty statements will continue to reecho in my mind and heart, inshaa Allah.
They will continue to be useful gems in my mission of education and inspiring young people around the world. Hopefully, those youths would make good use of the little I was able to gather from the immense reservoir of knowledge that was Imam Tafsir Gaye. I would continue to use some of these guiding principles in my own affairs. And that is the beauty of having been blessed with the company of enlightened beings like Imam Gaye. May Allah illuminate his path with the light of the Quran and grant him blissful repose in Jannatul Firdaus.
Truly he did his work and we shall continue to pray for Allah to shower him with His Grace and Mercy as we take inspiration from the footprints he left behind; in the words of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow:
“Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o’er life’s solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.”
Amen.
Momodou Sabally
Fatou Camara II
The man who allegedly got hit on his private part with a hoe by top police officer Gorgi Mboob has allegedly escaped the clutches of a group of unidentified men.
Twenty-six-year-old Ebrima Sanneh was returning home from friend singer ST’s house when a small car allegedly appeared in front of his car. The incident allegedly happened on Tuesday at around 7:50pm in Bijilo 2Ray’s Junction.
Ebrima told The Fatu Network: “I was just from ST’s house with a friend, as I get to the highway, there comes this car intercepting me. [It’s] a small vehicle with tinted glasses. [It’s a] Mazda, to be specific dark ash coloured. [It] suddenly hits the brake, all doors were opened and these tough muscular men approached me saying, ‘hey boy dont move’.
“They are about five to six men who rushed towards me and one of them managed to open my driving side door trying to grab my arm. But I hit my acceleration and drove off very fast. I was pursued for a while but I managed to escape.”
Police spokesman Suprintendent Lamin Njie told The Fatu Network the police did not receive any official complaint of the incident.
“We did not get any official report about the incident yet but if you get in contact with him please tell him to report to the nearest police station so that we can dig into the issue really and see what is going on,” the police spokesman said.
Ebrima’s friend could not be immediately reached for comment on what he saw.
The ministry of health has discovered a fresh 172 new cases of coronavirus after testing 524 people.
According to the ministry the development represents a 33% test positivity rate (172 out of 524 total tests performed).
The median age of the new cases is 36 years (range: 2 months to 94 years), the ministry added.
The nation’s cases of the disease now stands at 2,288.
Fourteen people have newly died from coronavirus, according to the ministry of health on Wednesday.
In national situation report No. 122, the health ministry said “not all the said deaths occurred on a single day as sampling dates spanned from the 14th to the 17th August (14th- 6 samples; and 4 samples apiece for the 15th and 17th)”.
“Samples of all 14(13 males and 1 female) were collected posthumously. The median age, at death, of the cases (12 positives and 2 indeterminates) is 61 years (range: 26 to 90 years),” the health ministry said.
A Vellingara, Casamance family is seeking help in finding a man as their father fights for his life after taking money from him.
Ablie Amat Sey, 70, took Sanna Sonko’s money early this year and left for Vellingara, a town near Tambacounda in Casamance.
His 32-year-old son told The Fatu Network the incident happened some six months ago.
“My father returned to Vellingara in February this year but he has been sick and has been calling the man’s name; that he wants to apologise to him but also return his money,” the son said.
He added: “The man’s name is Sanna Sonko and he used to live at Bundung near the school which is right around the car park. My dad said he was working for a betting company in Gambia.
“I just returned from Gambia yesterday and couldn’t find the man. I looked everywhere, I asked everywhere and people say he moved out of the house he was living in in Bundung and they don’t know where he is now.”
Anyone with knowledge about Sanna Sonko’s whereabouts can contact 2184870 or 00221764280511.
SeneNews came under attack from a man following an interview that caused his wife to leave him, according to Senego.
Senego reported on Tuesday a man simply referred to as Mbissane had gone to SeneNews offices following an interview that tragically ended with his marriage getting ruined.
Mbissane had agreed to be interviewed alongside his wife on SeneNews’s show Influence but caused himself all manner of marital problems after he confessed he had slept with his wife’s friend. His wife then left him following a shock husband-wife fight that started live on air.
Mbissane blames the outlet for his woes and has gone to its office to fight the staff, according to Senego.
Mali’s new military rulers have promised “a civilian political transition” that will lead to a general election after a “reasonable time”.
In a short televised statement on Wednesday morning, the soldiers who are now in charge of the country after a military coup on Tuesday said they were “not interested in power but in the health of the nation” but had intervened because of growing “chaos, insecurity and anarchy”.
In the name of the National Committee for the WellBeing of the People, Col Maj Ismaël Wagué promised polls to “give Mali strong institutions capable of better managing our everyday lives and restoring confidence between the governed and the governors”.
The intervention on national media came at the end of a fast-moving and chaotic day, which had started with reports of a minor mutiny and ended with the deposition of the president, Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta.
At about midnight, Keïta, whose second term in office had a further three years to run, announced his resignation, as well as the dissolution of the government and the national assembly. (Guardian)
Ibrahim Boubacarr Keita has announced his resignation as president of Mali hours after his arrest by the army.
Mr Keita speaking on state television ORTM late Tuesday said he was resigning in the interest of peace. He said he doesn’t want bloodshed.
Gambia Transport Union said on Tuesday drivers in the country are encountering pain over an Ecomig checkpoint in Bwiam.
The union’s president Omar Ceesay told journalists the checkpoint was causing accidents – as he called on the government to look into it.
“The location of the checkpoint is totally bad. The number of accidents that happened there is more than 10 accidents,” Mr Ceesay said.
He added: “Government gave us assurance they will do something about it but still nothing has been done. We cannot sit while the properties of our members are being destroyed. We cannot swallow this.”
The Gambia Transport Union also expressed frustration over 19 of their trucks that have been seized while conveying timber.
Mr Ceesay said: “Over three months, Senegalese soldiers had the trucks unlawfully. They were not taken to court. And then we discussed with the authorities and the matter was put before the courts.
“They were found guilty and on July 16, the [Brikama Magistrates] Court made an order for the vehicles to be released while the matter of the timber continues before the court. But since 16 July to today, those vehicles are in custody.
“We cannot continue to swallow this. We want the Gambia government to release our vehicles as soon as possible or we will react against them.”
By: Hassoum Ceesay, The Gambia National Museum, Banjul
Last Sunday Alhaji Imam Tafsir Gaye died aged 84, and I lost another friend and confidante of twenty years standing. He was an astute scholar of Islam, who trained at the most respected, prestigious and oldest Islamic institution of Higher Learning, Al-Ahzar University in Cairo, Egypt.
He arrived in Cairo in 1962 following many years of Dara scholarship in Bathurst and in Tivavoune. Egypt at this time was under the very inspirational rule of Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser(1913-1970). Nasser was a great Pan-Arabic and Pan-African. Like his friend Nkrumah, Nasser did not see the Sahara as a divide but as a contour of cultural and economic continuity which unites.
Nasser opened the doors of Al-Ahzar to African students in ways no other Egyptian leader did in modern times. Usually, the Gambian students would stay close to ten years, because if you reached the famous gates of Al-Ahzar, you knew you were in a pantheon of knowledge and so you must drink deep in its founts. Most Gambian students like my respected teacher K.L Jagne, stayed for over ten years doing Middle, High School and university courses.
Alhaji Tafsir only returned in 1971 and soon became a teacher in the newly formed Muslim High School. He taught Islam and Arabic there until he retired from active service.
Alhaji Tafsir at an early age became a close confidante and protégé of Alhaji Imam Abdoulie Jobe(1910-2004), the well respected Imam Ratib of Banjul, who had honour of leading Gambian Imams from 1982 to his demise in 2004. For a few years before Imam Jobe’s demise, Alhaji Tafsir regularly led the main congregational prayers at the Main Banjul mosque, and became a leading and respected member of the Bathurst Muslim Elders Committee, and always eager to spread and strengthen Islam.
Another way he supported Islam was through his regular Islamic column published without fail in the defunct Daily Observer from 1992 to 2017! Each Friday, including the Friday of July 22 1994, Alhaji Tafsir will anchor the Wahtanu Ajuma column discussing various Islamic topics in simple prose which all readers could imbibe. Not many readers of this very popular and dependable column knew the trouble Alhaji Tafsir had to undergo each week to put the copy of the column on my desk as Features Editor at the Daily Observer. Even I did not know until he told me one day in the office.
He said for each column, he would research and draft it in exquisite Egyptian Arabic. Then he will translate it into Wollofal. Then he will read the Wollofal to one of his children like Amran or Dabakh or his youngest wife, who will draft an English version. He would get this English draft translated back to him to cross check, before he asked them to type out a final copy which he must sign before dropping the column himself to me. This was the level of panacahe he had for righteous knowledge and its spread.
Moreover, Alhaji Tafsir did lot of missionary work in Senegambia and in the USA and Europe. An ardent disciple of the Tivaoune Sect and for many years, its official Representative in Banjul, Alhaji Tafsir believed in reaching out to the talibes in climes where their access to religious knowledge could be spotty. He made yearly missionary trips, which caught the positive eye of the US State Department and in the 2000s enjoyed a Travel Grant to USA in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.
Alhaji Tafsir enjoyed talking about Nasser and Egypt. Many a times, he will visit me at the Museum with one of the numerous photo albums he kept of his student days under Nasser. In one photo, I well remember, he was dressed in suit, and was shaking the hand of Nasser at an Al-Ahzar function. In another photo, Alhaji Tafsir was bestrode a dromedary, resplendent in Bedouin garb with a silhouette of the great Sphinx giving him a canny resemblance of Lawrence of Arabia, whom, in fact, he told he admired for helping to unite the disparate Arab clans. He knew Arabic and Arabs well. He knew the origins of the various Ruling Families, but as a Nasserite, he thought Arab Republicansim had a brighter future in the Orient.
Alhaji Tafsir was a restless scholar and propagator of Islam in The Gambia and beyond. He was a brilliant preacher, and a patient and affable person who I will sorely miss. To his family, and many talibes here and yonder, I pay my sincere condolences and pray that his soul rest in perfect peace.
(Alhaji Imam Tafsir Gaye(1936-2020): Gambian Orientalist, Religious Teacher and Columnist).
Hassoum Ceesay
The United States through its Embassy in Banjul says it remains committed to supporting countries in their fight against the global COVID-19 pandemic including The Gambia, amid the country’s ambassador Richard Paschall recently handing over 765,000 Dalasi worth of sanitation supplies to the Kanifing Municipal Council to support their efforts to combat the virus.
“The supplies were purchased using funds donated by the U.S. Department of Defense in partnership with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). These important resources will help KMC respond to and prevent further spread of the COVID-19 virus. All attendees at the event wore face masks, practiced proper hand hygiene, and followed safe distancing best practices,” a press release by the US Embassy Banjul on Tuesday said.
It added: “Ambassador Paschall thanked the leadership of the Kanifing Municipal Council upon delivery of the items.
Ambassador Paschall said, according to the release: “We at the American Embassy are proud to partner with the Council to support your efforts to support your citizens as they battle the Novel Coronavirus. We are reminded at these times that this is a small planet, that we are all brothers and sisters and must all work together to solve problems like these.”
The press release then added: “Deputy Mayor Musa Bah expressed his gratitude for the support.
“The donation to the Kanifing Municipal Council is one of many small-scale programs supporting The Gambia’s efforts to stop the spread of COVID-19. The U.S. government continues to lead the global response to COVID-19.
“The United States had allocated $12.5 Billion U.S. dollars to benefit the international COVID-19 Response. More information about the U.S. support for the international COVID-19 Response is available here: https://www.state.gov/update-the-united-states-continues-to-lead-the-global-response-to-covid-19-4/.”
By Reuters
Mali President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita was arrested on Tuesday by mutinying soldiers in the capital Bamako, two security sources told Reuters.
The arrest came after soldiers mutinied at the Kati army base outside of Bamako and rounded up a number of senior civilian and military officials.
A spokesman for Keita could not be reached for comment.
Alpha Robinson has turned down a new job offer by the Gambia government, according to a letter seen by The Fatu Network.
Mr Robinson was the managing director of National Water and Electricity Company but got sacked last July after just a little over a year in the role. No reason was given.
He was removed as head of NAWEC and quickly issued a spot in the foreign service.
However, in a letter to the permanent secretary at the Personnel Management Office on August 10, Mr Robinson turned down the offer of a job in the foreign service insisting it will not avail him the opportunity to have the impact he desires for The Gambia and Africa ‘given my professional background and experience’.
By Fatou Camara II
The ministry of health is contemplating plans to turn the largest health facility in Kanifing Municipality into a coronavirus treatment centre.
Top ministry of health official Dr Abdoulie Bittaye confirmed a plan is underway as more new cases of the deadly disease emerge.
“Yes it’s true, we are looking at converting the Kanifing Hospital into a treatment centre. This is because we are expecting a lot more cases,” the director of Health Services said.
A memo by administration of the hospital on Monday is seen telling staff of the move to turn the hospital into a coronavirus treatment centre. The move is expected to come into effect on Monday August 24.
The ministry of health has discovered 244 new cases of coronavirus taking cases recorded to 2,116.
The ministry of health newly conducted 725 tests and 244 came out positive. The new cases ranged between one and 94 years.
Imam Tafsir Gaye was laid to rest on Monday after passing away on Sunday. He was 84.
The Banjul-born Senegal and Egypt-trained imam was one of the nation’s top imams.
Hospital records seen by The Fatu Network show the foremost Islamic mind died of pneumonia.
Madi Jobarteh has tested positive for coronavirus, the rights activist and commentator confirmed on Monday.
Mr Jobarteh wrote on his Facebook page moments ago: “I’ve just tested positive for COVID 19. I am under self quarantine and seeking your best wishes! I have no symptoms at all!
“I am taking all necessary medication. Stay home. Wear masks. Sanitize! We shall conquer COVID 19.”
