By Lamin Njie

The mother of GDC leader Mamma Kandeh has died. Mada Sowe who was fondly called Merr Sowe died on Sunday in Brusubi. She was 91.

GDC national youth president MC Cham Jnr confirmed the death on Facebook, saying Merr Sowe died Sunday morning.

“The sad news is extended to all Gambians in and outside the country especially GDC supporters, members, militants and sympathizers,” Cham added.

Messages of condolence and prayer have since started to pour in for the leader of one of the biggest opposition political parties in the country. Foday Chorr said on Facebook: “My condolence to Hon. Kandeh and family. May her soul rest in peace.”

Babucarr Jallow said: “My condolence to Hon. Mama Kande and the family for the great loss. May Allah grant the mother Janna firdawsi. Ameen.”

Madi Jobarteh sending his condolence through MC Cham Jnr said: “May the gentle soul of his beloved mother Rest In Peace. Amen. Please extend my heartfelt condolences to Hon Mama Kandeh and his family and party members.”

By Omar P. Jallow

Malick Fama Foundation Friday donated food items and bottles of drinking water to inmates of the State Central Prisons in Banjul.

The donated items include 25 bags of rice, 25 bags of sugar, five buckets of butter, 10 cartons of milk powder, five 20l gallons of cooking oil, five packets of tea bag and bottles of drinking water.

Speaking at a ceremony held at the Mile Two prison on Friday to present the donated items, Secretary General of Malick Fama Foundation, Mr Omar Badjie, highlighted that the gesture was part of his foundation’s contribution to the improvement of the welfare of the needy during Ramadan.

“The Malick Fama Foundation is set up to support the less privileged and the needy in society,” he added.

Former Chief of Defence Staff also adviser to Malick Fama Foundation, Mr. Lang Tombong Tamba, thanked Capt. Abdoulie Jobe and wife Ndey Busso of the foundation, for what he called a noble move in reaching out to those in prisons. ” I believe that prisons are places for correction and I want people to understand that inmates need to be cared for and motivated. Going to jail does not mean someone is bad,” he stated.

Receiving the items on behalf of the beneficiaries, Mr Lamin Sanneh,Director of Administration of Prisons Service, said the items would go a long way in supporting the prisons feeding programme.

“It is not easy to feed inmates. They are humans and need balanced diet. Inmates are not bad people. We are trying to use here [prisons] to rehabilitate and transform the inmates to become productive in society by training them in different skills,” he posited.

A Zimbabwean fisherman has been killed by a crocodile that reportedly devoured his penis.

Paul Nyamhanza, 27, of Hopley in Harare, was killed near Beatrice in Mashonaland, some 34 miles (54 km) southwest of the capital.

He was casting nets for fish with his younger brother Jeremiah, 19, at the Elladale Farm Dam when the reptile attacked him, Bulawayo 24 reported on Thursday.

When Zimparks rangers recovered his body later they found his penis had been bitten off.

Mashonaland East provincial police spokesperson Inspector Tendai Mwanza confirmed the grisly circumstances of Mr Nyamhanza’s death.

‘I confirm the death of a man from Hopley in Harare, who was attacked by a crocodile at a dam in Beatrice,’ he said.

‘The deceased was in the company of another adult man casting their fishing nets when he was attacked by the reptile.’

Inspector Mwanza warned fishermen and others to stay away from waters where crocodiles are known to lurk. (DailyMail)

The ECOWAS Task Force on the region’s single currency would meet in June to give the assessment on the studies of the currency, President of the commission, Mr Jean-Claude Brou, has said.

Brou said this while presenting the Community Work Programme at the ongoing ordinary session of the ECOWAS Parliament in Abuja on Friday.

The commission’s president said that stakeholders in the region’s economic and finance sectors, including the central banks and ministers of finance, had been deliberating on the single currency.

“The single currency is a topic that is very important because it completes the free movement of persons for a single market and if there is a single currency, one can carry out trade and there is a need for harmonisation.

“Deliberations are being carried out with the central banks and the ministers of finance in the region and some key issues are being discussed.

“Issues such as the convergence criteria, the best exchange regime to adopt with challenges and costs involved so as to give the best conditions for the community.

“The studies that are being carried out would be completed by next month so that we can have the proposals and make progress.”

Brou said that the meeting would determine the possibility of achieving the single currency by 2020 set by the Heads of State.

“It will be on the basis of the results of all the studies on the assessment that is currently being done that we will see where we stand exactly but the objectives have been set by the Heads of State,” he said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that the Authority of Heads of State and Government had set aside 2020 for West African countries to achieve the single currency which would promote economic integration.

The commission’s president, while presenting the community report to the parliament in November 2018, said that many member states had yet to meet the macroeconomic convergence criteria required for a monetary union.

The three primary criteria that are being used are a budget deficit of not more than three per cent; average annual inflation of less than 10 per cent with a long term goal of not more than five per cent by 2019; and gross reserves that can finance at least three months of imports.

The three secondary convergence criteria that have been adopted by ECOWAS are public debt/Gross Domestic Product of not more than 70 per cent; central bank financing of the budget deficit should not be more than 10 per cent of previous year’s tax revenue; and nominal exchange rate variation of plus or minus 10 per cent. (Vanguard)

By Press Association

Consuming fruit juices is just as bad for your health and likely to lead to an early death as drinking cola or lemonade, research suggests.

A new study found an increased risk of dying early from any cause for people who consumed a lot of sugary drinks.

US researchers compared, for the first time, 100 percent fruit juices with sugar-sweetened beverages such as cola and lemonade.

They found very similar associations for both fruit juices and sugary drinks with an increased risk of dying early, though they said more research was needed.

An expert described the study as important but said there was no risk from a single 150ml glass of fruit juice per day.

The new research, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), analyzed data from 13,440 people. Their intake of sugary drinks and 100 percent fruit juices was recorded via a questionnaire on how often they consumed the drinks.

During an average follow-up of six years, there were 1,000 deaths from any cause and 168 deaths from coronary heart disease.

Typically, people in the study got 8.4 percent of their calorie intake each day from sugar-sweetened drinks and 4 percent from 100 percent fruit juice.

People were considered to have a high intake of these drinks if 10 percent or more of energy intake came from these drinks compared with those with a low intake (less than 5 percent).

After factors such as obesity were taken into account, those with the highest intake had an 11 percent increased risk of dying from any cause for every extra 12oz of sugar-sweetened drink consumed, and a 24 percent increased risk for every extra 12oz of fruit juice consumed.

The researchers, including from Emory University in Atlanta and Cornell University in New York, said: ‘These results suggest higher consumption of sugary beverages, including fruit juice, is associated with increased mortality.

‘The nutrient content of 100 percent fruit juices and SSBs (sugar-sweetened beverages) is very similar.

‘While 100 percent fruit juices contain some vitamins and phytonutrients that are missing from most SSBs, the predominant ingredients in both are sugar and water.

‘Although the sugar in SSBs is added during processing and the sugar in 100 percent fruit juice occurs naturally, the specific sugars they provide for the body to process are essentially the same, and the biochemical response when metabolized is the same.’

The authors suggested a few possible reasons for the increased risk of dying from consumption of sugary drinks.

Obesity is obviously the main factor, they said, but once that is taken into account, research suggests that sugary drinks increase insulin resistance.

Other factors may be that consuming fructose alters blood lipid levels, markers of inflammation and blood pressure, while high glucose consumption has been associated with insulin resistance and diabetes.

Dr Gunter Kuhnle, associate professor in nutrition and health at the University of Reading, said: ‘This is a very important study, especially as fruit juices are often seen as a ‘healthy’ alternative to sugar-sweetened beverages, even though they often contain much more sugar (especially smoothies).

‘Fruit juices can provide vitamins and even some fiber, but there is little health benefit beyond this: the amount of phytochemical found in juices is too low to have any further beneficial effect, and there is no beneficial health effect from so-called antioxidants.

‘If the association is shown to be causal (which we don’t know yet), this would have a number of implications: first of all, it would suggest that it does not matter whether sugary drinks are lemonades or fruit juices.

‘This is important, as fruit juices and smoothies are not commonly perceived as sugary drinks. Secondly, it would suggest purported health benefits of fruit juices are not sufficient to counteract their sugar content.

‘Fruit juices are a poor replacement for actual fruit consumption, in particular as they can be much more easily over-consumed.

‘Indeed, a 150ml glass of orange juice is made from about two oranges – but it takes much longer to eat two oranges than to drink the juice.

‘In the UK, the general recommendation is that a 150ml glass of fruit juice can provide one of the five-a-day, but not more.

‘This is less than half of the amount found in this study to result in a modest increase in mortality, so there is no suggestion from this study that one glass a day is problematic.’

By Momodou Justice Darboe

The Director General of the Gambia Tourism Board has denied media reports that he exonerated EJ Investments from encroaching on the Tourism Development Area.

EJ Investments was recently in the news after GTBoard claimed the real estate agency had encroached on the Tourism Development Area in Sanyang and Tujereng. GTBoard last month said in a statement that real estate agencies like EJ Investment, S&J Properties and Darboe Jula were selling landed properties in the Tourism Development Area, notably Tanji, Batokunku, Tujereng, Kartong and Sanyang. The tourism regulation body warned that anyone who buys land in the TDA is doing so at his or her own risk.

On May 2, EJ Investments called a press conference where it slammed GTBoard for claiming the company was selling land in the Tourism Development Area.

On Wednesday, The Standard newspaper reported that the director general of the Gambia Tourism Board confirmed to the paper that EJ Investments’ estate in Sanyang does not lie within Tourism Development Area.

But speaking in a press conference on Friday in Kololi, Abdoulie Hydara said reports that he had confirmed that EJ Investments has not encroached on the TDA in Sanyang were incorrect.

“If we give out information in an attempt to be very open and transparent and knowing very well that the media forms a critical component of our development agenda, we would be very happy to see you quoting us correctly. It is incorrect to quote that the director general of the Gambia Tourism Board has confirmed that EJ Investments has not encroached in Sanyang. I have never said that,” Hydara said.

By Lamin Njie

Dou Sanno has said that former vice president Ousainou Darboe and a number of political prisoners had their imprisonment scrapped thanks to President Adama Barrow.

President Barrow and Darboe have bandied words in the past over who was responsible for his release from prison.

President Barrow during meeting with his supporters at State House last month said he was the one who released a number of political prisoners including Darboe from Mile Two in 2017. Darboe disagreed with him in an interview with Paradise TV, saying it was Gambians who were behind his release from prison.

But speaking to Star FM in an exclusive interview, Dou Sanno endorsed President Barrow’s comment saying “it’s by the grace of President Barrow that all of them came out.”

“If there is anyone to commend, President Barrow is the one. Then you can commend Gambians because it was Gambians who united and brought President Barrow to where he is,” the deputy political adviser to the president said.

“And the position president Barrow is occupying, it’s God that gave it to him and when God gave it to him, President Yahya Jammeh acknowledged it because he called him congratulating him and conceding defeat.”

By Lamin Njie

A man dressed in a stack of amulet has said President Adama Barrow will face the full fury of Gambians if he refuses to step down after three years.

Alagie SM Jobarteh directly addressed President Barrow in a video on Facebook and said the president will come to learn that Gambians are powerful.

“So Barrow, you said you are powerful? This coming December, three years Jotna, just like we did [with] Yahya Jammeh. He is braver than you and he is more of a lion that you. He is gone. Just like Gambia Has Decided, for you, yours is Three Years Jotna. It’s here and you know it’s here. You will know that Gambians are more powerful than you,” Jobarteh who appeared to be threatening the president said in Wollof.

The 52-second video with the title, ‘Sleeping Barrow 3 jotna you have only 6 month (sic)’ appeared to have been posted on Facebook on Wednesday. It has gone viral racking up hundreds of views and dozens of shares.

Watch the video below…

By Lamin Njie

A lawyer at the attorney general’s chambers has filed a complaint with the police claiming he was assaulted by a staff of Gambia Ports Authority Ferries Service.

Abubacarr D Jabbi allegedly travelled in a ferry two weeks ago without buying a ticket and when confronted about it as he was about to leave the Banjul ferry terminal, he threatened to teach the officer involved a lesson.

A source said: “He was travelling from Barra to Banjul. When he got to the terminal gate, he was asked to surrender his ticket but he said he threw it in the sea.

“The ferries officer said he had to surrender the ticket before he could leave the ferries premises. This resulted in a confrontation and the official threatened to teach him a lesson.”

According to the source, the ministry of justice official has written a letter to the Inspector General of Police regarding the incident.

“He has written a letter to the Inspector General of Police regarding the incident. He has also lodged a complaint of assault at the police,” the source added.

The Fatu Network contacted the Minister of Justice Abubacarr Tambadou and Solicitor General Cherno Marenah on Monday for comment but both officials did not respond to a text message. The latter did not also pick a call. The Inspector General of Police could not also be immediately reached.

The Fatu Network also contacted a senior ferries official but he declined to comment on the issue.

By Lamin Njie

John C.B Mendy has threatened to institute a legal action against anyone bent on smearing his image.

The chief security officer at Gambia International Airlines issued these threats on Wednesday when he was contacted by The Fatu Network to react to reports he has been frequenting and consulting a certain marabout in the Kombo South village of Madyana.

“I’m a devout Christian and why should I waste my money on marabouts? I don’t even know Madyana but again, even if I go there, I believe I have a right to freedom of movement as a free citizen,” he said while denying the reports.

He added: “I have now realised that my rights are being infringed upon but let me assure you that I will institute legal action against anyone attempting to tarnish my image. Last time, they wrote a bad story about me concerning an incident at the Independence Stadium but I decided to leave it at that. But from now and any other day to come, I will take legal action against anyone trying to soil my image.”

John C.B Mendy is a former orderly to the vice chairman of the Armed Forces Provisional Ruling Council (AFPRC). He was arrested by the police at the Gambia/Senegal border on April 2 for allegedly attempting to abscond. He was detained and later charged with murder.

Prior to his arrest, he appeared before the Gambia’s Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission and gave his own account of events surrounding the November 11 but he was deemed by the justice ministry as ‘outrageously dishonest’.

Pope Francis on Wednesday offered a ride on his popemobile to eight children of migrants who recently arrived in Italy from war-torn Libya.

The children toured St Peter’s Square with the Pope in his white open-topped jeep, ahead of Francis’ weekly audience with the faithful.

After the audience, the children gave the Pope a giant red heart-shaped banner with their signatures and the message: “Thank you Pope Francis.’’

Vatican spokesman Alessandro Gisotti tweeted a picture of it.

“Some of the children were flown to Italy in late April via a `humanitarian corridor’ backed by the Italian Interior Ministry.

“Others arrived via migrant boat a few months ago,’’ Gisotti said in a separate statement.

Gisotti said that the children from Syria, Nigeria and Congo, are being hosted in a Catholic shelter near Rome and looked after by a private charity.

Francis, the son of Italian immigrants to Argentina, is an outspoken advocate for solidarity towards migrants and refugees, although he has also spoken in favour of reasonable limits to immigration.

The United States Embassy in The Gambia on Wednesday congratulated seven young Gambians who have been selected for the 2019 Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders.

The 2019 Fellows are Kemo Bojang, Ndey Fatou Jabang, Ebrima Sonko, Binta Badjie, Modou Lamin Fatty, Sainabou Barra Cham, and Lamin Jafuneh.  They were selected from over 330 Gambians who applied for this year’s Fellowship.

These accomplished professionals will be among 700 young leaders selected from across Africa through a rigorous application process for this year’s program, a statement by the embassy on Wednesday said.

“They represent The Gambia’s diverse society and were all chosen for their community service, leadership, and contributions to the country’s progress through various platforms,” the statement said.

Last week the Fellows participated in orientation sessions at the U.S. Embassy. Ambassador Richard Carl Paschall congratulated the young leaders and conveyed his best wishes that the program would have a remarkable impact on their lives.  He expressed his confidence that Fellows would return with new skills, ready to play an important role in strengthening democratic institutions and spurring economic growth.

The Fellows will leave The Gambia next month for a six-week program at universities throughout the United States.  You can follow their journey on the Embassy’s Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/U.S.EmbassyBanjul.

By Lamin Njie

Alhagie Bambo Lem has announced he has revoked his support for the United Democratic Party.

“My decision is triggered by the lack of respect in the party. Every day, they are insulting people and after listening to some of the comments that members of the party were making regarding The Gambia not going ahead to host the OIC, I have decided to revoke my support for the party with immediate effect,” Lem who is very active on social media told The Fatu Network Monday.

The 25-year-old former public relations officer of UDP Tallinding Youth Action Group said he would now be backing President Barrow ‘as he is someone who has the interest of the country at heart.’

“I have written a letter to him (President Barrow) and I plan to meet him. He is very serious about national development and I will give him my 100 per cent support,” Lem added.

WhatsApp on Tuesday encouraged its users to upgrade the app to plug a security breach that allowed sophisticated attackers to sneak spyware into phones, in the latest trouble for its parent Facebook.

The vulnerability — first reported by the Financial Times, and fixed in the latest WhatsApp update — allowed hackers to insert malicious software on phones by calling the target using the app, which is used by 1.5 billion people around the world.

“WhatsApp encourages people to upgrade to the latest version of our app, as well as keep their mobile operating system up to date, to protect against potential targeted exploits designed to compromise information stored on mobile devices,” a spokesperson said in a statement to AFP.

The FT cited a spyware dealer as saying the tool was developed by a shadowy Israel-based firm called the NSO Group, which has been accused of helping governments from the Middle East to Mexico snoop on activists and journalists.

And security researchers said the malicious code bore similarities to other tech developed by the firm, according to The New York Times.

The latest exploit — which impacts Android devices and Apple’s iPhones, among others — was discovered earlier this month and WhatsApp scrambled to fix it, rolling out an update in less than 10 days.

The firm did not comment on the number of users affected or who targeted them, and said it had reported the matter to US authorities.

It also informed authorities in Ireland about the “serious security vulnerability”, according to a statement by the country’s Data Protection Commission (DPC).

“The DPC is actively engaging with WhatsApp Ireland to determine if and to what extent any WhatsApp EU user data has been affected,” it said.

It echoed WhatsApp in encouraging users to update the app, as “the possibility remains that EU users were affected”.

The breach is the latest in a series of issues troubling WhatsApp’s parent Facebook, which has faced intense criticism for allowing its users’ data to be harvested by research companies and over its slow response to Russia using the platform as a means to spread disinformation during the 2016 US election campaign.

By Momodou Justice Darboe

A broad daylight fire at Tippa Garage in Bakoteh Monday gutted business materials worth thousands of Dalasis.

Items that perished in the inferno included motor bikes, kitchen wares, mattresses, clothing and the NAWEC transformer just near the bridge.

The cause of the fire could not be immediately ascertained but witnesses say it broke out at around 2pm and it took more than two hours before it could be put out.

When The Fatou Network visited the scene, some of the materials were smoldering and the extent of the damage could not be established. However, victims and witnesses put it into thousands of dalasis.

Speaking to this medium, Musa Gitteh, a Bakoteh resident and one of the volunteers in the fire fight, explained that today’s inferno was unprecedented in the history of fire outbreaks in the area.

“I can say with ease that we are just lucky that the fire had been controlled before it reached the Petro Gas filling station . However, thousands of valuables has been destroyed in the fire and we can say we’ve done a wonderful job in fighting it,” he said.

Ebrima Sallah and Mawdo Bah, both victims of the fire, lamented they’ve lost all their livelihoods as a result of the fire.

“I bought D38,000 worth of items three days ago and all have been destroyed today. My entire livelihood was destroyed. I’ve lost everything,” he added.

By Momodou Justice Darboe

The minister of tourism and culture has said sex tourism is not only unique to The Gambia as prostitution also exists in both Rome and Mecca.

“Yes, prostitution is all over the world. You go to Rome, yes there is. You go to Mecca, yes there is. It’s everywhere. It’s the oldest profession,” Hamat Bah told journalists at a press conference at the Gambia Tourism and Hospitality Institute in Kanifing on Friday.

There are claims of sex tourism in The Gambia and Bah addressing the issue said it was a section of the Gambian media who were peddling such claims.

“There is no sex tourism in The Gambia. Sex tourism is something that the government sanctions, that’s is well organized, that’s well managed, it’s not in this country,” he said.

“So when I see journalists writing Gambia, sex tourism, putting documentaries and you take them to court they will lose the case. But this government does not want to take any journalist to court. But I want to advise you please; when somebody comes to destroy your country, and want you to write evil… Let’s be cautious of what we write.”

By Lamin Njie

The Gambia government is set to abandon a policy imposing a 75 percent increase on tax on wine and beer as well as sugary drinks, sources have told The Fatu Network.

The Gambia government and Banjul Breweries Ltd are engaged in negotiations after the country’s only brewery threaten to quit The Gambia.

The government last year announced a 75% tax rise on wine and beer and sugary drinks.

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.

A finance ministry source told The Fatu Network on Monday the government ‘will most likely abandon the policy.’

The minister of finance spoke on the Banjul Breweries kerfuffle on Monday, saying ‘we’re working with them.’

“As at now, we are engaging them. The impact, they have now communicated to us through the ministry of trade with the national assembly select committee. We’re working with them,” Mamburay Njie told journalists at a press conference in Banjul.

The sales manager at Banjul Breweries Borri Darboe has confirmed that negotiation were ongoing.

“We are waiting for the government response but no production is taking place right now,” Darboe told The Fatu Network Monday.