By Lamin Njie

The Gambia is among at least 180 countries who have agreed on a legally binding framework to reduce the pollution from plastic waste.

A Gambia government delegation was last week in Geneva, Switzerland for a two-week meeting of UN-backed conventions on plastic waste and toxic, hazardous chemicals. The meeting has churned out an agreement on the tracking of thousands of types of plastic waste.

Environment minister Lamin Dibba told The Fatu Network on Saturday The Gambia forming part of the meeting ‘is quite obvious because Gambia is among the first African countries that banned plastics in their countries.”

Dibba said: “The executive director of the National Environment Agency and the technical service director represented The Gambia.

“It’s important because in this world where environmental hazards do not know boundaries we need to comply with the provisions of the Basel-Rotterdam-Stockholm convention in the safe movement of waste particularly electronic waste or radioactive waste which is very serious and dangerous for any environment.”

The Gambia government placed a ban on plastic bags in July 2015, with manufacturers or importers facing fines of up to D300,000. Individuals who flout the law could also be handed fines of up to D3,000.

“The Gambia government has taken several steps to enforce the ban on plastics. After the change of government, a lot of people thought that this was done by the previous government so the law has gone.

“But few months ago, we had a taskforce that comprises the National Environment Agency, all the other security outfits that went and they were arresting and confiscating plastic which fall under the bad category and sermon them to court. Right now, we have a backlog of cases at the Kanifing and Brikama magistrates’ courts,” Dibba said.

By Lamin Njie

The Gambia government and Banjul Breweries Ltd are negotiating a solution aimed at averting the closure of the country’s only brewery, it has been revealed.

The Gambia government last year announced a 75% tax rise on wine and beer, with the move affecting sugary drinks too.

A senior official of Banjul Breweries Ltd told The Fatu Network at the time that excise hike from 10% to 75% was found in no country in the whole of Africa. He also told the outlet the move will have a negative impact on the beverage manufacturing industry and the economy.

The brewery last week announced that it is heading for closure following the laying off of dozens of staff.

But on Saturday, the company’s sales manager Borri Darboe told The Fatu Network engagement with the Ministries of Finance and Trade ‘is finally in progress.’

“We are now waiting for them to make a move that meets the aspirations of all businesses in the sector,” Darboe said.

Tax contributions by Banjul Breweries Ltd averaged 120 million dalasis in 2017.

At least 70 migrants drowned when their boat capsized off the Tunisian coast after they left Libya hoping to reach Europe, reports suggest.

It is one of the deadliest shipwrecks involving migrants trying to reach Europe illegally this year.

The UN’s International Organisation for Migration said the sunken boat took to the sea from neighbouring Libya, where renewed warfare between rival factions has gripped the capital Tripoli in the past five weeks.

It put the number of victims at 50, with 16 survivors but the state-run Tunis Afrique Presse agency gave a death toll of at least 70 people.

The boat sank 40 miles off the coast of Sfax, south of the capital Tunis, the Tunisian agency said.

Fishing boats were said to have been scrambled to rescue the survivors.

The Tunisian Defence Ministry said the boat had left from the Libyan port of Zouara yesterday, aiming to reach Italy.

Navy units have recovered only three bodies so far, it said in a statement.

‘Another tragedy in the Mediterranean,’ the IOM said.

Libya’s western coast is a main departure point for migrants from across Africa hoping to reach Europe by paying human traffickers. (DailyMail)

By DailyMail

Penis enlargement surgery rarely works and should almost never be performed, doctors have warned.

Researchers found as many as 80 per cent of men who have the ops are unhappy with the results, and many are left with ‘disfigured’ or even smaller penises.

Private clinics are preying on men insecure about their bodies, one expert claimed, with the ‘vast majority’ of paying customers already having normal sized penises.

The most popular penis enlarging procedures are filler injections to make it thicker and surgery to snip a ligament at the top which makes it appear longer.

But both carry a high risk of complications, a study has warned, and are rarely worth the effort or the money – costs can rise as high as £40,000.

Researchers from King’s College London looked at past studies into the outcomes of 1,192 penis enlargement procedures done on men around the world.

‘Overall treatment outcomes were poor, with low satisfaction rates and significant risk of major complications,’ they said.

The major complications included ‘penile deformity, shortening, and erectile dysfunction’.

Others were left with penises which were permanently numb in places, scarring, psychological problems or regret.

Gordon Muir, a urological surgeon at London Bridge and Kings hospitals, helped to lead the research.

He told The Guardian: ‘These procedures should almost never be done.

‘They can cost up to £30,000 or even £40,000, often the man ends up with a penis that is disfigured and there is no more than 20 per cent satisfaction rates with these procedures.’

Trying to increase the penis size of men who are normally endowed is a procedure which has barely any evidence to back it up, the study said.

The procedures aren’t offered on the NHS except if someone’s penis is damaged in a traumatic accident – cosmetic operations are paid for privately.

Mr Muir warned some of those running the clinics were ‘charlatans’ and didn’t carry out due diligence before going ahead with the life-changing surgeries.

‘Many men who wish to undergo penis enlargement procedures have an average-sized penis but believe their size to be inadequate,’ he added.

‘Sadly, some clinics seem to ignore this. Surgeons in the private sector should not do this. It’s wrong on every level.’

The researchers said men should always be offered full counselling and a psychological assessment before they decide to have the therapy.

In the study they added: ‘These findings make recommending surgery for men with normal penile dimensions unscientific at best and unethical at worst.’

They argued having a bigger penis size has long been associated with being more masculine and better in bed – despite no evidence to prove either.

And, despite 85 per cent of women reportedly being happy with their partner’s penis size, around half of men wish theirs was bigger.

‘Nowadays, pornography is often used as a benchmark and reinforces the belief that sexual fulfilment depends largely on penis size,’ the researchers said.

‘These concerns can cause significant distress even in men with a normal-sized penis.’

In their study the scientists looked at men who had non-surgical procedures such as dermal fillers injected to make the penis thicker, or using vacuum pumps.

Fillers are becoming more common in the UK, with private clinics Moorgate Aesthetics and Androfill revealing in October that they received 700 calls per month – up from around 10 per month three years ago.

The procedure costs around £3,000 per session but the injections are only temporary.

And they studied surgeries including having a ligament at the top of the penis snipped to make it hang lower, or having tissue from elsewhere grafted onto the penis.

Surgery can sometimes actually make the penis shorter because scar tissue causes it to tighten up and shrink.

The research was published in the journal Sexual Medicine Reviews.

By AFP

Surrounded by erotic toys, half a dozen women of all ages sit in a central Moscow basement facing a whiteboard as a sex coach trains them in speaking openly about their sexual desires.

‘I finally want to know what it’s like to be a satisfied woman, what sexual pleasure is,’ one of the ‘students’, aged 45 and divorced, told AFP.

Barely spoken about publicly in Soviet times and with the Kremlin pushing conservative values in recent years, sex, as a subject, remains largely an unmentionable in Russia.

To help people overcome their shyness in talking about sexual pleasure, sexologist training courses, psychologists and so-called sex coaches are now appearing in Moscow, adding to TV shows and articles in women’s magazines.

Viktoria Ekaterina Frank, a psychologist and sexologist, said that her course at the Sex.rf school did not aim to teach sex techniques but rather ‘help women understand the psychological barriers ingrained in their heads’.

Many women are ‘so embarrassed to talk about sex, they can barely breathe’, she said.

Nearly three decades after the end of the USSR, Russian society remains deeply marked by the aura of taboo around the issue of sex in the Soviet Union, according to sociologists.

Soviet authorities primarily promoted the idea that ‘the sexual act should serve only for reproduction,’ sociologist Yelena Kochkina told AFP.

‘This means that sexuality was not talked about in the family or at school,’ she said.

A TV interview from the beginning of the Perestroika era immortalised the Soviet prudish and practical attitude to sex, even if it was far from true in practice.

During a 1986 talk show broadcast in the United States and the USSR, an American woman asked a Soviet woman if there was sex in adverts in the Soviet Union.

‘There is no sex back home, we are categorically against it,’ the Russian replied, in an exchange that has become a part of popular culture.

Although it was off limits in public discourse in the Soviet era, everyone was having sex and ‘maybe even too much’, said Dmitry Rogozin, a sociology professor at the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Abortion at the time was often used as contraception due to the pill and condoms being unavailable and, as a result, the number of terminations was one of the highest in the world at the beginning of the 1990s.

When the USSR collapsed in 1991, a sex industry burst on to the scene, with a wave of erotic films on video cassette or in cinemas, magazines with racy photos and adverts in the popular press.

Sex coach Yelena Rydkina said that after the initial ‘crazy boom in interest’, suddenly it became too much, causing fear and rejection, and people turned away.

Inspired by sex coaching classes she attended in San Francisco in the US, Rydkina began teaching courses in Moscow where ‘people can talk normally about sex’.

‘Politics in the last 10 years is moving away from open sexuality and propagates traditional family values,’ she said.

Nevertheless, there is now a ‘real demand’ for more coverage of sex-related issues, leading to a rise in sex blogging in Russia, added Rydkina.

One such blogger is Tatyana Dmitriyeva, who founded Sexprosvet, a popular website that aims to ‘develop sex culture in Russia’.

She set up the site three years ago because she said that there was nowhere to seriously discuss the subject.

‘I wanted to change that, I wanted to start a dialogue,’ she told AFP.

Dmitriyeva also organises burlesque shows and regular pop-up markets of erotic accessories in Moscow, all as part of efforts, she said, to promote ‘sex that is not boring’.

For sociologist Rogozin, a lack of open political debate in Russia has now made talking about sex more attractive.

With authorities increasing their control over the media and internet, often blocking content linked to the opposition, Rogozin said that Russians found freedom of expression in talking about sex.

‘Intimacy is seen as a form of escape from dangerous political activity,’ he told AFP. ‘People are more eager to talk about sex than politics.’

The appetite for open discussion, however, stops short at homosexuality – considered by the state as a mental illness until 1999, he said.

Authorities, citing ‘traditional’ values, have banned gay pride parades and clamped down on so-called homosexual propaganda among minors.

‘Being gay is ok for celebrities, but not for those who live next door,’ Rogozin said.

By Lamin Njie

Amnesty International has commended President Adama Barrow for commuting The Gambia’s 22 death sentences.

Justice Minister Abubacarr Tambadou said on Wednesday that President Barrow has commuted the death sentences of 22 prisoners to life imprisonment.

Reacting to the development, Marie-Evelyne Petrus Barry, Amnesty International West and Central Africa Regional Director who met with President Barrow last week said “the President’s commutation of these death sentences to life imprisonment is an important milestone for Gambia which is slowly and steadily moving away from the death penalty.”

She said: “Less than a week ago, Amnesty International met with President Adama Barrow who confirmed to us his commitment to outlaw this cruel punishment – it’s good to see him take another concrete step against the death penalty.

“This decision is a positive step, however we want the authorities to go further by abolishing the death penalty for all crimes without delay, including in the country’s future constitution.

“We also hope they will implement our recommendations to repeal draconian media laws, reform the security sector and end discrimination against women.”

By Lamin Njie

The followers of Sheikh Bethio Thioune and the chief caliph of the Mourides on Friday rowed over where the late Thiantacoune leader should be buried.

A private jet carrying the body of Sheikh Bethio landed in Senegal from France on Friday as the burial ceremony of one of Senegal’s most powerful religious leaders entered its final stage.

Local media reported that Sheikh Bethio’s talibehs have stormed the Blaise Diagne airport as they insisted their leader will be buried in Madinatul Salam instead of Touba.

The chief caliph of the Mouride brotherhood in Senegal reportedly spoke with the family of Sheikh Bethio and demanded that he be buried in Touba but his followers say they want to fulfil their leader’s wish of being buried in Madinatul Salam.

Sheikh Bethio died from a reported heart attack on Tuesday in Paris, France. He died a day after a court in Senegal sentenced him in absentia to 10 years of hard labour for abetting the murder of two followers.

Meanwhile The Fatu Network has learnt that the chief caliph has triumphed. Sheikh Bethio’s remains are currently being taken to Touba for burial.

By Lamin Njie

The Gambia Police Force on Friday said the 15 people who were arrested after taking part in a protest where they called for President Adama Barrow to step down in January, 2019 have been charged and will appear in court.

Fifteen members of Operation Three Years Jotna, a group campaigning for President Barrow to abide by an understanding that brought him to power in 2016, on Friday staged a protest in Kololi as the debate over whether the President should leave office after three years continued.

The spokesman of the Gambia Police Force Lamin Njie told The Fatu Network the fifteen protesters have been slapped with a charge of prohibition of conduct conducive to the breach of peace.

Njie said: “They call themselves Operation Three Years Jotna. Today they went to Senegambia demonstrating with placards. They had never applied for a permit to demonstrate. The police tourism security unit tried to disperse them peacefully but they will not adhere to that call.

“So eventually, they got arrested and taken to the Kairaba Police Station. They are fifteen in number, eight female and seven male. Their statements were taken at Kairaba Police Station and eventually they got charged.

“They got charged with prohibition of conduct conducive to the breach of peace contrary to section 9 of the public order act. They are already granted bail but they will appear before the court as soon as possible.”

By Lamin Njie

Interior Minister Ebrima Mballow has confirmed the arrest on Friday of over a dozen people who took part in a protest calling for President Adama Barrow to step down after three years.

About 15 members of Operation Three Years Jotna – a group campaigning for President Barrow to honor the three years coalition agreement – Friday morning held a protest in Kololi where coalition partners were billed to meet to sign a document scrapping the three years understanding.

“I’m aware of it. Of course yes [they were arrested]. They will be charged for protesting without a permit. It’s against the law. If you do anything that is against the laws of the country, the law will take its course,” Mr Mballow told The Fatu Network Friday.

Friday’s protest was the first of its kind since a debate on whether President Barrow should step down in December or continue until 2021 began. Coalition partners have been holding crunch talks and it emerged this week that key changes have been made to a memorandum of understanding including the part which says President Barrow should leave office after three years.

At least one coalition partner, the United Democratic Party, has voiced its disgust at the changes. The party’s representatives reportedly walked out of a meeting on Monday. UDP wants the seven political parties to tend to the unsigned MOU first, its spokesperson Almami Taal told The Fatu Network on Tuesday.

UDP has since come under sharp criticism over its current disposition and many linked Friday’s protest to the party but the party issued a statement on Friday rejecting such claims.

The Interior Minister Ebrima Mballow told The Fatu Network it wasn’t his belief the protest was at the instance of a political party.

“Investigations are ongoing. I do not believe whether it has any relation to any party but investigations are ongoing,” he said.

By Momodou Justice Darboe

The Child Protection Alliance, CPA, has expressed shock that children as young as 15 are being currently detained alongside adult offenders at the State Central Prisons in Banjul.

The child welfare advocacy group also expressed dissatisfaction about the country’s lacklustre commitment to the protection of the rights and promotion of the welfare of the child.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with The Fatu Network following revelations by Amnesty International that children as young as 15 and 16 were under detention at Mile II Prisons and along with adult offenders, CPA acting Coordinator, Lamin Fatty, lamented: “It’s quite shocking that we just learn that children as young as 15 and 16 have been detained at Mile II Prisons together with adult offenders.

“[The] Gambia has committed itself to the fulfilment of respecting children’s rights; to make sure they are protected and these are obligations. One of these is the protection of the best interest of the child. The Gambia Children’s Act emphasise that whenever a child is in conflict with the law, the best interest of the child supersedes any other element. Arresting and detaining a child should be the last resort. And where a child is being detained, he or she should not be in the same cell with adult offenders. We must advocate to see that the government lives up to its commitment.”

Mr Fatty was convinced that detaining children in prisons as well as beyond 72 hours as permitted by the laws of the land are in conflict with their best interest.

“Having to even arrest a child should be the last resort and where a child is arrested, you should not expose him or her to prison conditions because arrest is part of rectification. So, it shouldn’t be more of punishment but rehabilitation. You should not expose them to harsh prison conditions but should involve them in productive social activities to rehabilitate them,” he pointed out.

By Lamin Njie

Rumours of Alhagie Manka marrying a second wife have come to pass.

The 31-year-old chief executive officer of State of Mic has married the love of his life Fatou Fatty. The Fatiha came at a low-key ceremony held in Dippa Kunda on Thursday.

Gambians reacted immediately after photos of the pair were shared on social media with Fatima Jeng commenting in a Facebook post: “Ma’sha’allah my am happy for you bruv…My Wifey Number 2 is Beautiful, like whilst My Number 1…Am really happy for You.”

Daniel Jabbi said: “Let’s keep marrying them, too many women out there, and they all need love…congrats.”

Foday AS Ceesay commented: “People who are campaigning for 1 wife each, should tell us what will unmarried women do? Control themselves up to dead or what?”

Manka’s new wife Fatou Fatty works at the social welfare department as a child welfare officer.

See below a pictorial of the couple.

By Lamin Njie

Thione Seck on Thursday told a court in Senegal he is innocent of a crime of money laundering.

The popular Senegalese singer was charged four years ago with money laundering after fake banknotes worth millions of euros and dollars were found in his house.

His lawyers at the time say he was the victim of a swindle and the money was paid to him by a producer as an advance for an upcoming tour.

On Thursday, the 64-year-old appeared before a judge and maintained his position of non-culpability. Seck has at least four decades under his belt as a musician.

By Lamin Njie

UDP leader Ousainou Darboe is the most humble Gambian that lives, the spokesperson of the party has said.

“Our leader is the most humble Gambian that lives. I can say that with every confidence,” Almami Taal told The Fatu Network Wednesday.

UDP has come under criticism over its recent political ventures but Taal insisted UDP is a progressive party.

He said: “We are a party that is broad based, throughout the country. You cannot say that we are only strong in one region. In all the regions we are very competitive and we challenge anybody when elections come to show us where they have a majority more than us. Every country has a system.

“Politics is about performance. At the end of the day, unless and until we have a complete institutional innovation and change in The Gambia, we take the constitution as it is and try to work with it. We take the laws as they are and try to work with them. And when we have absolute majority again it would be for the people. We are not bragging. The party is not known for bragging.”

By Lamin Njie

UDP spokesperson Almami Taal has doubled down on his comment he doesn’t know anybody in GMC aside Mai Fatty.

Taal and GMC have been engaged in a back-and-forth after the former sarcastically asked Gambian Talent Promotion’s Pa Ousman Joof who else was in GMC aside Mai Fatty.

GMC’s executive slapped back at Taal describing his comments as ‘impudent’ and demanded that he apologise to the party.

But speaking to The Fatu Network in an exclusive interview, Taal said he was just showing his ignorance when he said what he said.

“I was just showing my ignorance. I don’t know anybody else. It has nothing to do with GMC perse,” Taal said.

He added: “I don’t have anything to apologise. I think they are the ones who should apologise to Gambians. I asked a very simple question, who else is in GMC? I don’t know. Mai Fatty I happen to know very well. He’s my friend. I consider him a friend. We were at the Bar together.

“What I’m trying to explain is that if you look at the parliament, there is no member of parliament from GMC, there is no councillor from GMC. And I repeat, apart from Honourable Mai Ahmad Fatty I don’t know anybody from the GMC. This is maybe my fault.”