By Lamin Njie

A disturbing video showing an alleged thief being beaten by a group of people has emerged on social media.

The video which started doing the rounds on Facebook on Friday shows a shirtless man sitting on the ground with his hands and legs tied.

A boy is seen standing by him and slapping him and asking him to look at another participant who appeared to be the one filming the scene.

Seconds later, another man joined in slapping the unidentified man who then threw himself on the ground screaming. Another participant could then be heard saying in Wolof, ‘do you think you can leave Guinea and come here to steal?’

In a separate video, water could be seen being poured on the man.

The Fatu Network could not immediately establish when and where the 49-second and 6-second videos were taken.

Watch the videos below.

A woman severed a man’s penis by biting into it after he allegedly held her up with a knife and began sexually assaulting her.

She then ran from the attacker’s home and went knocking on neighbour’s doors for help while naked and covered in his blood, a police report showed.

Metro reports that Dennis Slaton, 61, a registered sex offender, was charged with first-degree criminal sexual conduct and kidnapping a month after the incident in Greenville, South Carolina, in August.

He had to be treated for his severe injury which he described as ‘pretty tragic’.

Slaton, whose 40-year criminal history includes convictions for sodomy, voyeurism and attempted rape, denies he sexually assaulted the woman.

According to an incident report from the Greenville County Sheriff’s Office, obtained by Greenville News, the alleged victim told police that on 8 August, she was waiting to be picked up by someone she had met online when she saw Slaton’s white van driving outside a motel and motioned for him to pull over.

She claims she got into Slaton’s car but almost immediately felt that something was not right and asked him to drop her off.

The woman offered him five dollars for the ride and he said ‘OK’, the report states.

But Slaton continued to drive and pulled a knife out which he then held to the woman’s throat, yelling that she owed him $300 (around £231), she claims.

The police report states he then drove her to his home where he allegedly sexually assaulted her and threatened to kill her ‘after he was done with her’.

She bit Slaton on his penis as she fought to get away, severing the organ, before grabbing the knife he had allegedly used against her to stab him in the bottom.

The incident report states she fled the scene, naked and covered in blood, and begged neighbours for help before running to a restaurant nearby where staff called the police.
When officers arrived at Slaton’s house they found him soaked in blood, police said.

After undergoing surgery, he told local media: ‘It was pretty bad, pretty tragic, what happened to me.’

Slaton was released from custody after paying $75,000 – around £57,000 – bond.

The case is ongoing. (Metro)

By Adama Makasuba

Twenty-seven new lawyers have been advised to prioritise honesty and professionalism after they were called to the Bar.

The lawyers were inducted at a ceremony held today at the High Court complex in Banjul after four years of intensive studies and a year of lawyer training.

Speaking at the ceremony, Chief Justice Hassan Jallow urged the new lawyers to continue studying and seek assistance from their seniors in the profession, adding ‘your success at the bar will be determined by your continued study.’

As a legal practitioner your primary duty is officer of the court and uphold the administrative principle,” he advised the new lawyers, adding ‘remember you are not the mouthpiece of the clients in contravention of the law.’

Salieu Taal, president of Gambia Bar Association advised the new lawyers to be ‘independent’ and ‘as a lawyer it is our duty individually and collectively to protect the integrity of the constitution.’

“Rule of law and good governance are the primary pillars of development and without rule of law and good governance there cannot be development,’’ Mr Taal said, urging the new lawyers to uphold rule of law and good governance.
You must know that people come to lawyers because they think lawyers know the law, so, if you don’t know the law find your way out, he said.

He urged the new batch of lawyers to offer pro bono services to the less privileged in the society as he called on other lawyers yet to be part of their ‘pro bono association’ to sign in and start offering free help unprivileged people in the community.

Representing the minister of justice, Hussein Thomasi expressed gratitude to the batch of lawyers but warned them ‘of misconduct and ‘there is high price to pay for in misconduct, you could be debarked which could be the end of your career’ and urged them to seek assistance from their seniors at all time in the profession.

By Omar Wally

Fatou Jallow has appeared before the TRRC four months after she shocked the country by claiming former President Yahya Jammeh raped her.

Widely known as Toufah, the 23-year-old former beauty queen publicly testified before the commission on Thursday telling the probe Jammeh rubbed his genitals on her face and then went on to ‘penetrate’ her from behind. The alleged incident allegedly happened at State House in 2015 while Jammeh was president.

During a marathon testimony Thursday, Toufah recalled how the former president showered her with gifts in a bid to endear her to himself.

It all started with her taking part in a beauty contest in 2014 which Jammeh himself was funding. Later, Toufah was asked to work on a project – a project the former leader committed to fund. This then led to a number of meetings between Toufah and the former president.

On the day the former leader allegedly raped her, Toufah was invited to State House for an Islamic gathering that never was for her personally. She was taken to a room where the former president allegedly met her and raped her.

A tearful Toufah told the TRRC: “He [Yahya Jammeh] said, ‘let’s see if you’re a virgin. I swear to God I was scared. I started to apologise to say that, ‘I am sorry, please don’t do this’. Because he appeared very angry.

“He held my face, he pulled his pants down and he rubbed his genitals in my face. He pulled my dress up and he was just saying, ‘thanks’. Yahya Jammeh decided to penetrate me. But before he did, he took out a needle from his pocket, he injected me on my arm. Yahya Jammeh did not want sex with me or pleasure. What he wanted to do was to hurt me.

“He wanted to see and he said, ‘let’s see what is here,’ as he pushed his penis into me. As all of this is happening, I am hearing the Quranic recitation in the background. The gamo was going on.

“He sodomised me and what that means is, he took his penis and he put it into my anus instead of my vagina.”

Jammeh has so far not responded to the allegations.

By Lamin Njie

Three thieves met their waterloo recently after the car they were travelling in got stuck in mud in Sukuta.

Bubacarr Camara, Baba Jaiteh and Alpha Trawally had hired a taxi that was conveying them with their ill-gotten properties including a goat. The taxi got stuck in mud in Sukuta and when benevolent residents raced to the scene to help them, the stolen goat began to bleat prompting them to ask questions.

Police spokesman Lamin Njie (not the author of this story) told journalists at Brusubi Police Station on Wednesday: “These individuals are involved in activities of house breaking and stealing. The case has been reported to the Brusubi Police Station here about some individuals whose house have been broken into and valuables have been stolen.

“The police opened an investigation into this case. Few days into the investigation, we understood that there was a group of people who hired a taxi and inside this taxi was a goat, a [goat] which was stolen from elsewhere.

“Unfortunately for them, they got stuck somewhere around Sukuta where they need[ed] the help of people. When people came out to help them get out of that stuck that they were in, they heard the cries of a goat inside the taxi and they started asking questions about the goat.

“When they realised the questions were becoming too much, they all ran away and left the vehicle there. The police later realised that these people have a lot of issues to answer to. They intensified their investigations until they were all arrested.”

By Adama Makasuba

The top brass of Tabital Pullaagu have rejected claims by some members of the organisation that they were tossing an idea of having all Gambian Fulas support President Adama Barrow.

Last Saturday, some members of Tabital Pullaagu convened a press conference in Bakau where they claimed their leaders were pushing a campaign that could see all Fulas come together to back President Barrow. For a start, the officials claimed their president, Seedy Dem, was mobilising 3000 Fulas for a meeting with President Barrow at State House.

The spokesman of the association, Alieu Saja Jallow, told The Fatu Network it was only a few people who were against ‘our move to meet with the President of the Republic and they are all from a particular political party.’

Jallow who elected not to mention the name of the political party said the ‘few’ people hold positions in that party as advisers, constituency chairmen, organizers and national assembly members.

“The President has not invited us to a meet, we wrote to the President requesting to meet him. The President has not requested to meet 3000 Fulas,” Jallow added.

Kassum Jallow, the assistant secretary-general of the association said their meeting with President Barrow has nothing to do with politics adding ‘we are apolitical and we do not have a political vision.”

“The rumour that President Adama Barrow requested us to mobilise 3000 Fulas to a meeting at the State House is not true. We requested to meet President Barrow. President Barrow has never written or requested to meet us,” Mr Jallow added.

According to him, their meeting with Barrow was meant to discuss the objectives and challenges of the association “our vision is to promote the general welfare of our membership. “

“Tabital Pullaagu” cannot be a political party and we have no political agendas. Our mission and vision are to promote the welfare of our membership,” Jallow said.

Alagie Seedy Dem, the President of the association said he came up with the idea to meet president Barrow to discuss challenges faced with his association , adding “I did not discuss with President politics and he has never mentioned to me anything related to politics.”

“Our association does not see any political party. We see only our people and we will always work towards promoting their general welfare because that was what we were mandated to do,” urging the breakaway members to desist from creating disunity within the association.

By Adama Makasuba

A two-day Africa youth forum on gender and human rights that seeks to accelerate transformations and engage young African leaders in implementing the 2030 and 2063 Agenda has ended.

The forum brought together hundreds of youths across Africa to collectively share and look into issues affecting them and measures to addressing such issues.

Speaking before hundreds of youths at Paradise Suites Hotel, Dembo Kambi, chairman of National Youth Council called on the youths of the continent to unite and rewrite their history.

He urged for cordiality among countries and ‘we have to open up for free flow of economics activities in the continent’ and ‘development should be people centered.’

The governments should create the enabling environment for the youths to participate and governments also ensure that the young people have the necessary information to participate in politics and decision-making processes, Kambi told the forum.

According to him, youths should be empowered through job creation by their governments and ‘for the governments to put in place necessary legal and economic frameworks in order for youths to engage into meaningful economics activities.’

By Momodou Justice Darboe

Four thousand Gambians in Germany are currently under obligation to voluntarily leave the federal territory, so says the head of Directorate-Return Policy, Germany.

Dr Klos Christian however told The Fatu Network that Germany is more inclined towards voluntary return that expulsion.

He also dispelled reports recently making round town that around 2000 Gambian migrants in Germany were being ear-marked for deportation.

“There is always a decision [to]be made by the authorities whether somebody is eligible for international protection or not or for other immigration categories. And if the decision is no, then is a question of the rule of law to a certain extent to enforce it. But first of all, our priority is to encourage people to return voluntarily once they are under obligation to leave the country,” he said.

Dr Klos was speaking to this medium when he visited The Gambia on Monday for three days of engagements with senior government officials, youth groups, stakeholders in the migration industry among others.

The visit was part of German government’s wider initiative to spur voluntarily return of rejected asylum seekers to their countries of origin as opposed to deportation.

“Dialogue with various countries including The Gambia. We have discovered it is not enough to simply look at the international law where there is a clear law to readmit all nationals. We have found out that it is very important to get in touch with the people and the government of the countries of origin concerned and to talk about reintegration possibilities,” he explained.

According to him, the political development in The Gambia over the few years has minimized the asylum acceptance rate among Gambian asylum seekers in Germany.

“There is very little chance of [Gambians] being recognized as a refugee. Actually, they have no chance. For other forms of humanitarian protection status, I think there is likelihood of about 5%,” Dr. Klos pointed out.

He said Germany however have a focus on voluntary return and it had already rolled out reintegration programs, adding that voluntary return comes with incentives of a possibility of returning to the federal territory as opposed to the ban on entry that forced removal attracts.

According to some statistics, about 14,000 Gambians live in Germany and the chunk of this live in the State of Baden-Wurttemberg.

The Justice Ministry has said it will fully cooperate with the TRRC in its investigations into allegations of sexual misconduct levelled against a male staff of the ministry.

An unidentified witness told the TRRC on Monday a male staff of the justice ministry had harassed her sexually.

In a statement on Wednesday, the Ministry of Justice said it has followed with ‘keen’ interest the proceedings of the TRRC on the 28th of October 2019 and is concerned to learn from the testimony of a witness about an incident pertaining to sexual harassment involving a male staff of the Ministry of Justice.

“Being a lead institution in the fight against sexual and gender based violence, the Ministry wishes to assure the Public it will fully corporate with the TRRC in its investigation in this matter,” the ministry said.

By Momodou Justice Darboe

Until recently, not much that was happening in the Presidential villa in Kanilai with regard the former President’s appetite for maidens has been of public knowledge.

Revelations from the ongoing truth and reconciliation commission’s public hearings are now giving the public a bird’s eye view of the former President’s sex life.

Always unfailingly adorned in a flowing white boubou with bead and Quran held with supposed reverence, the developments from the TRRC about Jammeh’s acts of forced sex against young Gambian girls have caused quite a stir.

The holier-than-thou former Gambian dictator was more seen to be a man of God than being obsessed with women. He personally sponsored numerous religious activities, built mosques and went to Mecca to perform Hajj for several times.

Up until the startling revelations by a former Gambian beauty queen earlier this year that Yaya Jammeh had raped her, all was seen as rumors that the dictator had voracious appetite for beautiful young girls. Luring his unsuspecting victims with favors such as monetary gifts, expensive scholarship packages, jobs and other inducements, Jammeh’s web of sexual escapades extended from the country’s army to his female protocol officers as well as beyond the confines of the country.

The ex-Gambian leader was also discovered to have been outsourcing sex servants from countries such as Ethiopia and Guinea Bissau. All these was happening when the former first lady was busy shopping around the world.

Former First Lady Zeinab Suma was spending little time in The Gambia and her continued absence from State House had given her husband the opportunity to prey on young Gambian girls. Jammeh’s lust for women has been graphically detailed by testimonies from TRRC witnesses about how he abused his power to have sex with young Gambian girls in slave-like conditions.

One of his bets was money and another of his traps was appointment into his team of protocol officers. The latter was where he was best at. Jammeh would appoint beautiful, young girls as protocol officers to build a bridge between him and them. Then this close proximity gave him the edge to entice some of them into bed.

So far, testimonies adduced before the trrc has uncovered some unpleasant things about the former dictator. The tyrant was said to be uncompromising for his pursuit for sexual pleasure. Jobs were lost and scholarships terminated as a result of non-positive response to the dictator’s sexual advances. Lives were also lost as consequences of Jammeh’s sexual misadventures. Irrefutable facts about the killing in 2011 of a female soldier and her husband at Hamza barracks by men under orders of Yaya Jammeh in a futile attempt to conceal the pregnancy of the female soldier for which he was suspected to be responsible are available.

Jammeh did not only dashed the aspirations of young Gambian girls by terminating the scholarship packages that he offered them for simply refusing his advances but had also succeeded in sowing the seed of discord among his female protocol officers.

A TRRC witness gave a graphic detail of the atmosphere of deep-seated animosity and jealously between some female protocol officers as a result of the rules by which Jammeh played the love-ball. He was said to be indiscriminate, fickle and indecisive in his choice for a sex partner. Jammeh was said to be hopping from one maiden to the other and the resultant loss of self-worth, disappointment and betrayal felt by the girls led to pervasive mistrust.

“He will give you the impression that he love you and you are the only one but once he is tired of you, he will dump you and go for another girl. These has led to problems among us and even people of same blood ties,’’ a protected witness, who was a protocol officer to Jammeh this week told the trrc.

Despite these revelations, Jammeh currently living quietly in exile in Equatorial Guinea has not commented and his party said it would be profane to confront their leader on sex allegations.

By Adama Makasuba

A top United Nations official has called on parents in The Gambia to stand in solidarity with their children who are victims of sexual exploitation and abuse.

Maud de Boer-Buquicchio who is the United Nations’ special rapporteur on the sale and sexual exploitation of children said parents in The Gambia must allow their victimised children to speak up their ordeal to ensure perpetrators are punished by the law.

“So, this is really a big issue… therefore there is a need for sensitization of the society to allow children to speak up and to parents understand these are crimes that should be eradicated and they should not be involve in facilitating these crimes,” de Boer-Buquicchio said at a news conference today at UN House in Bakau.

There is culture of silence in this country because people don’t want to discuss this matter and even if the child is in a position to make an initial declaration to the police, there is often a pressure within the family and these cases are subsequently dropped, she added.

De Boer-Buquicchio who is on a nine-day monitoring and recommendations mission in the country said despite The Gambia having laws and Institutions protecting the rights of children ‘there is real need for additional resources’ which include providing appropriate knowledge of training and skill to addressing sexual violence against children.

A large ancient wetlands region spanning northern Botswana – once teeming with life but now dominated by desert and salt flats – may represent the ancestral homeland of all of the 7.7 billion people on Earth today, researchers said on Monday.

Their study, guided by maternal DNA data from more than 1,200 people indigenous to southern Africa, proposed a central role for this region in the early history of humankind starting 200,000 years ago, nurturing our species for 70,000 years before climate changes paved the way for the first migrations.

A lake that at the time was Africa’s largest – twice the area of today’s Lake Victoria – gave rise to the ancient wetlands covering the Greater Zambezi River Basin that includes northern Botswana into Namibia to the west and Zimbabwe to the east, the researchers said.

It has been long established that Homo sapiens originated somewhere in Africa before later spreading worldwide.

“But what we hadn’t known until this study was where exactly this homeland was,” said geneticist Vanessa Hayes of the Garvan Institute of Medical Research and University of Sydney, who led the study published in the journal Nature.

The oldest-known Homo sapiens fossil evidence dates back more than 300,000 years from Morocco. The new study suggests that early members of our species as represented by the Morocco remains may not have left any ancestors living today, the researchers said.

“There is no contradiction between the presence of an early Homo sapiens-like skull in northern Africa, which may be from an extinct lineage, and the proposed southern African origin of the Homo sapiens lineages that are still alive,” added study co-author Axel Timmermann, a climate physicist at Pusan National University in South Korea.

The ancient lake Makgadikgadi began to break up about 200,000 years ago, giving rise to a sprawling wetland region inhabited by human hunter-gatherers, the researchers said.
“It can be viewed as a massive extension of today’s Okavango Delta wetland area,” Timmermann said.

Changes in Earth’s axis and orbit caused climate, rainfall and vegetation shifts that set the stage for early migrations of this ancestral group of people away from the homeland region, first toward the northeast 130,000 years ago, then toward the southwest 110,000 years ago, Timmermann added.

“Our study provides the first quantitative and well-dated evidence that astronomically driven climate changes in the past caused major human migration events, which then led to the development of genetic diversity and eventually cultural, ethnic and linguistic identity,” Timmermann added. (Reuters)

By Adama Makasuba

An unidentified woman has told the TRRC former president Yahya Jammeh sexually abused her by asking her to undress and touching her breast.

The woman who served as a protocol officer to Jammeh told the investigation on Monday she was sexually confronted by Jammeh on numerous occasions.

The woman said she was called in a room by Jammeh in one incident at his home village in Kanilai and ‘when I went he told me to undress and asked me he is doing some spiritual bath on me’.

She said few days later, Jammeh called her and ‘he asked me to undress and I did but this time it was different and he said you look like a primary school student and he started touching my body and my breast.’ As a result, she said she was expelled from Kanilai by Jammeh.

She alleged that Jammeh also slept with his niece and sisters and that she was informed that ‘Jammeh had sex with a lady without using protection and as a result she got pregnant.’

According to the woman, girls that Jammeh abused sexually were kept in a big room in Kanilai and Jammeh would call them at night.

She said her first meeting with Jammeh, she was offered a protocol officer which she accepted and that her salary was little above 6000 dalasi, adding that they were over ten female protocol officers at the time of her appointment.

By Momodou Justice Darboe

A huge fire at the Kanifing Industrial Zone Sunday evening caused colossal damage to property estimated in millions of dalasis.

At around dusk on Sunday, deafening sounds from exploding gas containers could be heard several kilometres from the industrial zone with conflagration and thick smoke billowing several metres sky-high.

First of its kind in the history of fire outbreaks in the country, the sounds of explosions from the fire have sent many in the residential areas of Kanifing and Old Jeshwang out from their houses onto the streets for either out of curiosity or panic.

As of on Sunday night, no live has been reported lost in the fire but the victims mostly factory owners have started counting the costs.

President Adama Barrow on Monday visited the disaster site to view the damage caused by the fire.

“It’s a very unfortunate situation but I cannot thank the fire service enough for the hard work under very difficult circumstances. We are here to see and assess what we are going to do,” Mr Barrow said.

The cause of the fire disaster has not been officially established yet but sources say it started from Hadim Gas Company and the destruction that it caused the gas distribution company and the businesses around it is unquantifiable.

By Lamin Njie

Saida Aisha Faal whose Facebook account says she is the public affairs manager at Kanifing Municipal Council has accused The Fatu Network of smear campaign after the outlet reported Talib Ahmed Bensouda’s claim that students in The Gambia learn underneath streetlights and in public markets at night.

Bensouda is on a visit to the US city of Madison to push a partnership that could see Madison help construct a public library in the Kanifing Municipality.

At a meeting with Madison council officials, The Cap Times, a newspaper published in Madison, quoted Mayor Bensouda as saying: “The initial stage is to do something immediately because we feel we have an emergency on our hands.

“Students need to immediately have a safe space where they could learn. Right now how students learn, especially in the wee hours of the night, is using public facilities such as markets or streetlights. So as you can imagine, that is a very unsafe way to learn.”

Gambians reacted to Mayor Bensouda’s claim with many saying such a situation is found nowhere in The Gambia.

But Saida Aisha Faal has attacked The Fatu Network over the article saying the outlet is engaged in smear campaign.

She wrote in a Facebook post: “Dear [The] Fatu Network, it’s amazing that with all the mayor has said and all the effort to bring about the first municpal library project (worth $3.5million dollars) that would benefit KMs over 100,000 student population which is really the mandate of the ministry of education … all you can do is a smear campaign instead helping raise the funding …

“Gambia’s youth population is exactly 63% (google it) and yes it was in my presence Where two groups of students told the mayor that they study under the street lights, Bundung maternity hospital and Serekunda market, even MDI ROAD under the street lights…..so that’s facts for you …

“PS it has come to my attention that you don’t cover any of the mayor’s initiatives or major projects and this is your first story … it would be nice to have objective journalism in the country…”

Editor’s note: It is extremely unfortunate for someone who calls herself a public affairs manager to attack a media outlet for simply doing its job. A cardinal role of a journalist is to hold holders of public office to account. If the council’s public affairs manager really understand journalism and what media is all about, she will realise what we reported is the most important part in the mayor’s speech. Students learning under streetlights and in markets is a national emergency that is worth reporting for urgent national action. No wonder The Cap Times picked that angle being the paper that first reported it. Nowhere in the story did we say the mayor was lying. That conclusion is for the readers. If indeed the mayor was right, as claimed by Saida Aisha Faal that she was present when two groups of students told Mayor Bensouda they study under streetlights and in the market, then this report should not come across as a problem to her and by extension the entire KMC. On the issue of us not covering the mayor’s activities, because we have not been receiving any notification or invite, we would not be in a position to know what the mayor’s activities are.

By Adama Makasuba

A two-day forum with the objective of localising sustainable development goals is set to kick off in Banjul on Sunday.

The forum dubbed, ‘Localizing the 2030 Agenda’ is expected to bring together officials from The Gambia Sierra Leone, Ghana, Guinea Conakry, Guinea Bissau, Senegal, Cote Ivoire and Liberia.

This is the first time The Gambia would host such international forum.

At a news conference today at African Princess in Kololi, permanent secretary at the ministry of foreign affairs Salimatou Touray said the forum seeks to localise the sustainable development goals in the sub-region.

She described the forum as a pilot project and “its success will determine its replica in the future” adding that there would also be cultural events to market out The Gambia’s aims and aspirations to the world.

Amadou Jaiteh, counsellor at the permanent mission of The Gambia to the UN, said one criterion of The Gambia hosting this event is because of its peacefulness, adding “our primary role is ensuring that we bring development to the Gambia.”

He said it would be important to talk about the 17 sustainable development goals but that these goals cannot be talked about in the absence of peace.

Alagie Fadera, director of development planning ministry of finance and economic affairs also welcomed the forum as a way to helping The Gambia attain some of its goals, adding that sustainable development goals are implemented at local levels.

He said the 2019 report is worrying because “if the trajectory the world is not on targets to meet zero poverty by 2030.”

By Adama Makasuba

Breakaway members of Tabital Pulaagu have accused the leader of the organisation Seedy Dem of instigating tribalism in the country by spearheading a move that seeks to bring all Fulas together to back President Adama Barrow.

Tabital Pulaagu, a non political and non religious group, was established in 2017 to bring members of the Fula tribe together but it has now emerged the leader of the group has allegedly met President Barrow and is making moves to have all Gambian Fulas support the president.

Seedy Dem has demanded the group mobilises 3000 Fulas from all parts of the country to meet President Barrow to endorse the Gambian leader, Sutura Jallow said in a news conference in Bakau on Saturday.

“The decision for only Fulas to meet the president is worrisome. We denied his (Seedy Dem) request three times, and we asked him to tell us his final decision about the issue, and he told us if anyone doesn’t go he will go,” Jallow who is adviser to the group’s executive said.

He added: “The Gambia is too small and therefore for a particular tribe to meet the president should not be accept.

“I have never seen or heard in any country where a particular tribe will mobilize and meet the president, so if we do such how will the other tribes see us?”

Alieu Jamanka, Demba Jallow and Alagie Jawo all members of Tabital Pulaagu spoke at the news conference and have all denounced their leader.

Seedy Dem told The Fatu Network over the phone he was not in a position to comment on the accusations.

“Any response would come from the executive and you will have the opportunity to meet our executive members who will speak on this issue,” Dem added.

By Adama Makasuba

A two-day peace-building, gender equity and social inclusion training for media practitioners on Friday began in Kanifing.

The training being organised by Ambassadors of Peace is meant to fine-tune the skills of 20 Gambian journalists in the promotion of peace in society.

The initiative is supported by the United Nations Population Fund, United Nation peace building and the National Youth Council.

According to Ambassadors of Peace, the training is part of a two-year project which targets the regions and schools in the country, with peace talks set to start in the Greater Banjul Area, West Coast Region and Upper River Region

Speaking during the opening ceremony, Alagie Jarju, programme manager of National Youth Council said there cannot be any meaningful development without peace and urged youth to endeavour to embracing peace for the betterment of the nation.

He advised the journalists to be fair in their work and be actively engaged in peace-building initiatives.

Juju Jallow, programme manager of ambassadors of peace echoed similar remarks while Pa Modou Faal and executive member of Gambia Press Union called on the journalists to be cautious in the way they report events.