By Lamin Njie

US ambassador to The Gambia Richard Paschall has greeted Gambians on the occasion of this year’s Ramadan.

Speaking in a video message Sunday, Paschall said Ramadan highlights values that The Gambia and the United States share.

He said: “I would like to seize this opportunity to wish all Gambians a joyous Holy Month of Ramadan. Ramadan highlights values that The Gambia and the United States share; peace, friendship and goodwill.

“During Ramadan, Muslims commemorate the revelation of the Quran to the Prophet Muhammad through fellowship and prayer. I look forward to sharing iftar with my Gambian friends and hearing what Ramadan means to you.”

By Lamin Njie

The ministry of justice has recommended the prosecution of three people allegedly involved in the reported unlawful selling of expired government fertilizer.

Last year, Kerr Fatou reported news of the involvement of some officials at the ministry of agriculture in the selling of thousands of bags of expired fertilizer. The fertilizer had been kept in government stores awaiting safe discarding.

The scandal led to the then agriculture minister Omar Jallow suing Kerr Fatou after his name emerged in a story carried by the online news outlet.

The minister of justice Abubacarr Tambadou spoke on the scandal on Tuesday – the first time in months – saying his ministry has handed prosecution recommendations against three people to the police.

Tambadou said: “We have made our opinion to the Gambia Police Force on 26 February 2019 recommending that charges be preferred against three individuals and that the police should conduct the prosecution of the case.”

President Adama Barrow has appointed Justice Minister Abubacarr Tambadou as the chair of the steering committee on the security sector reform in The Gambia.

Confirming the development to journalists at a press conference in Banjul on Tuesday, Mr Tambadou said his role will be to provide strategic leadership to this reform process and to help accelerate it.

“As you all know the aim of the security sector reform is to get a security service in The Gambia that reflects the current geographic, political, social and economic realities of our country and in response to its needs as a modern democratic state,” he said.

The Security Sector Reform project is an initiative by the Barrow administration to transform the country’s security sector into institutions that are effective, professional and accountable to the state and the people of The Gambia.

A new investigation by the Guardian newspaper and open-source journalism site Bellingcat has offered new evidence of large-scale mosque razing in China’s Xinjiang province.

Using satellite imagery, the Guardian and Bellingcat open-source analyst Nick Waters checked the locations of 100 mosques and shrines identified by former residents, researchers, and crowdsourced mapping tools.

Out of 91 sites analysed, 31 mosques and two major shrines, including the Imam Asim complex and another site, suffered significant structural damage between 2016 and 2018.

Of those, 15 mosques and both shrines appear to have been completely or almost completely razed. The rest of the damaged mosques had gatehouses, domes, and minarets removed.

A further nine locations identified by former Xinjiang residents as mosques, but where buildings did not have obvious indicators of being a mosque such as minarets or domes, also appeared to have been destroyed.

Xinjiang province is a territory where rights groups say Muslim minorities suffer severe religious repression.

By Momodou Justice Darboe

Muslims in The Gambia today join the rest of the Muslim Ummah to observe a month of fasting. The month-long fasting widely referred to as Ramadan is a period of spiritual revival and rejuvenation, repentance, forgiveness and generosity of spirit among other virtues. However, it is also a period when prices of basic commodities in The Gambia shoot up and the man in the street is always at the receiving end of these price hikes.

Well The Fatu Network was at Serekunda market on Monday, one of the largest markets in The Gambia, to talk to vendors and buyers about their expectations as to the prices of essential goods vis-a-vis Ramadan.

Sally Jatta: Well, things seem to be going on normal as we speak but efforts need to be stepped up to ensure that the poor doesn’t suffer from unnecessary price hikes. All measures should, therefore, be in place to make sure businesspeople do not exploit the situation.

Musu Manneh: The prices remain the same. Though the commodities I sell here are within reach of the common man, I cannot say for certain whether the status quo will remain considering the market forces of demand and supply. We hope to sell at reasonable prices but the supply prices are the ultimate determinant factors in retail pricing. So we are hopeful that government will help in regulating prices for the benefit of the poor, especially during this month of fasting.

Binta Kah: The price of goods such as meat,sugar,rice, Irish potato,fish and carrot needs to be looked into. It is the average Gambian that suffers from all these market variables and its about time government looked into their plight[ the poor].

Fanta Bojang: We are vendors and we don’t determine prices. Prices are determined by suppliers. But our hopes and expectations are that prices will remain affordable to everyone even though this may sound a toll order.

Salieu Jah: I’m doing my utmost to ensure I sell meat to my customers at an affordable price. Prices of meat still remain affordable since the coming into office of President Adama Barrow two years or so ago. I am also ensuring that anyone that comes to my stall laughs away satisfied because they are able to get value for their money.

By Lamin Njie

Social media network Facebook saw less political content in The Gambia Monday as Muslims in the country joined the rest of the Muslim Ummah to observe the start of this year’s Ramadan.

Checks by The Fatu Network on Monday revealed social media networks like Facebook and WhatsApp were instead recording a hike in religious content.

Thousands of Gambians have also taken to the two platforms to greet each other on what is the holiest month of the Islamic year.

Momodou Sabally is a social media user and he told The Fatu Network it is best that Gambians abstained from politics during Ramadan.

“For the politics, maybe after two, three days you will hear statements. But if we can take a break that will be better because too much of everything is bad,” Sabally said.

Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter are popular platforms in The Gambia .

By Lamin Njie

President Adama Barrow woke up early on Monday to begin his day at work, his spokesperson Amie Bojang Sissoho has said.

Muslims in The Gambia fasted on Monday officially marking the start of this year’s Ramadan fast.

Speaking to The Fatu Network on Monday on whether the President’s work life has been affected by the Ramadan fast, Amie Bojang Sissoho said it is business as usual for President Barrow.

Nothing has changed up to this time, she added.

President Barrow’s work life during Ramadan contrasts sharply to former president Yahya Jammeh whose typical day started late and ended late.

Jammeh would often come to the office at around 2pm and leave at the end of the day-long fast.

Meghan Markle, aka the Duchess of Sussex, has given birth to a son. This is her first child with husband Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex.

The newborn prince was born at 5:26 a.m. local time and weighed 7lbs, 3oz.

The royal couple confirmed the news via their official Instagram on Monday.

“We are pleased to announce that Their Royal Highnesses The Duke and Duchess of Sussex welcomed their firstborn child in the early morning on May 6th, 2019.”

The duchess went into labor “in the early hours of this morning,” the palace said in a statement provided to BuzzFeed News.

“The Duchess and baby are both healthy and well, and the couple thank members of the public for their shared excitement and support during this very special time in their lives. More details will be shared in the forthcoming days.”

Prince Harry greeted reporters after the baby’s birth, saying the birth has “been the most amazing experience I can ever possibly imagine.”

He also had plenty of praise for his wife.

A court in Senegal court on Monday sentenced in absentia Muslim leader Sheikh Bethio Thioune to 10 years of hard labour for abetting the murder of two followers.

The high criminal court in Mbour found the influential head of a branch of the Mouride Brotherhood guilty of failing to denounce a crime and being an accomplice to murder seven years ago.

His deputy, Sheikh Faye, was convicted of the same charges and received the same sentence from the court in the coastal town about 80 kilometres (50 miles) south of Dakar.

Ten other defendants, more or less directly involved in the grisly killings, were given 15 years of hard labour, while two were given eight years.

Prosecutor Youssou Diallo last week asked the court to give hard labour for life to Sheikh Bethio over the killings on April 22, 2012.

The charges ranged from murder entailing barbaric acts, criminal association, receiving and burying corpses without authorisation, possessing weapons illegally and failing to report a crime.

The case bas been widely followed in the West African country, where 90 percent of the population are Muslims and the Mouride Brotherhood is a Sufi order of Islam wielding considerable political sway.

Thioune was arrested on April 23, 2012, a day after the deaths of two followers whose savagely beaten bodies were found 800 metres (yards) from his house in the village of Keur Samba Laobe, western Senegal.

When the trial began exactly five years after the arrest, one of the sheikh’s defence attorneys, El Hadji Mamadou Ndiaye, said he had barred one of the victims from entering his home.

The man, according to this account, had been accused of zealously worshipping Thioune and even comparing him to God — an act of sacrilege.

He refused to obey the ban on entering the residence, which prompted Thioune’s outraged supporters to kill him and one of his friends, the lawyer said.

Thioune was freed on bail in February 2013 and has been in France for medical treatment during the trial.

The court announced that he would not be summoned “because of his age”, but seized his assets and awarded 100 million CFA francs (about 152,500 euros / $171,000) to the heirs of each murdered man.

The Duchess of Sussex has gone into labour, Buckingham Palace has announced.

Meghan went into labour “in the early hours” of Monday morning, the palace said in a statement.

Prince Harry was by her side and a further announcement “will be made soon”, it added.

The new arrival – whose sex is not yet known – will be the Queen’s eighth great-grandchild, and seventh in line to the throne.

The infant will be behind the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Cambridge and his children – Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis – and the Duke of Sussex.

Harry and Meghan have said they will only share the news of the baby’s arrival once they have had a chance to celebrate privately as a family.

The couple announced the pregnancy publicly on 15 October 2018 – the first day of their royal tour of Australia and New Zealand.

The duchess was last seen on an official engagement on 19 March when she signed a book of condolences in London with Harry for the victims of the Christchurch terror attack.

The former actress and the duke moved into their renovated home Frogmore Cottage on the Windsor Estate at the beginning of April, as they prepared for their baby’s arrival.

The baby will not be an HRH, or a prince or princess, unless the Queen steps in, because George V limited royal titles in 1917.

A boy will be able to use one of Harry’s lesser titles and be known as the Earl of Dumbarton, but a girl is not allowed to become the Countess of Dumbarton because of male bias in the rules surrounding hereditary peer titles.

Instead, a daughter would be Lady (first name) Mountbatten-Windsor. (BBC)

By Fatu Network reporter

The lead investigator of TRRC has married the investigation’s No. 2 lawyer.

Alhagie Barrow and Horeja Balla Gaye got married on Thursday, a source close to Mr Barrow has told The Fatu Network.

The pair are said to have met at a few months ago at the TRRC, the source added.

A close friend of Barrow, Bubacarr Sidiqi Jammeh congratulating the newlyweds said in a Facebook post Saturday: “Am super stoked and happy for my Kotoké Alagie Saidy-Barrow and Horeja Bala Gaye on their wedding. Two amazing humans.”

The TRRC is an investigation into the human rights violations and abuses of the 22 years rule of former president Yahya Jammeh.

By Lamin Njie

The Ecowas Mission in The Gambia has announced the death of one of its peacekeepers, Staff Sergeant Bamidele Akinwale of the Nigerian Contingent.

Akinwale, 45, passed on in the early hours of Friday 3 May, 2019 after a suspected cardiac arrest, a statement by ECOMIG on Friday said.

The body of the late Soldier is currently being kept at the Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital Morgue for an autopsy while arrangements being made to convey the body home (Nigeria) for the necessary rites and burial in accordance with national, traditional and military customs, it added.

Meanwhile President Adama Barrow has condoled with the family of Staff Sergeant Bamidele Akinwale.

Director of press and public relations Amie Bojang Sissoho said in a statement on Friday said President Barrow “has received with deep sadness the news of the untimely demise of Sergeant Chief Bamidele AKINWALE of the Nigerian Contingent of the ECOWAS Military Intervention in The Gambia.”

“On behalf of the Gambian people, the president sends his condolences to the family of the deceased. Thank you to the late Sergeant AKINWALE for his bravery and dedication to peace and security in The Gambia and the subregion,” she said.

By Lamin Njie

Karpowership on Friday donated rice and sugar to the Fatoumatta Bah Barrow Foundation to support the foundation in fulfilling its mandate to Gambians.

The donation comes at a back of a similar gesture on Thursday where the power company put smiles on the faces of at least 200 Gambian families by giving them rice and sugar on the occasion of Ramadan.

On Friday, the company gave the Fatoumatta Bah Barrow Foundation 100 bags of rice and 100 bags of sugar at a ceremony held at State House.

Speaking at the event, the country manager of Karpowership Yankuba Mamburay said the gesture was aimed at supporting the First Lady through her foundation in helping Gambians.

“Karpowership is a Turkish company. We are engaged in electricity production. Currently we have fleet of powerships around the globe that is giving out some 3100 MW of electricity and Gambia inclusive as far as that number is concerned,” Mamburay said.

He added: “We came into The Gambia and our powership Karadeniz Koray Bey powership got connected to the Gambian national grid sometime around early 2018 as a result of the power purchase agreement that was signed between Nawec and Karpowership in February 2018.

“We have donated food items to 200 families yesterday. It was a very busy day. And a couple of weeks ago, we donated to some orphanages, some food items too. Some time last year during Ramadan, a similar gesture was made.

“And we were also involved in the rehabilitation of the children’s hospital to ensure that where water supply was not getting into, they got water supply. We spent about 6000 dollars towards that. We have a lot of plans as far as supporting the communities and helping in the development of the country.”

The vice chairperson of Fatoumatta Bah Barrow Foundation Fatou Ceesay on her part said the gesture will go ‘very far’ in complementing the First Lady’s efforts in helping Gambians.

“In the last two years, the foundation and our chief patron we would engage in this month of Ramadan in supporting mainly the most vulnerable of the community which includes some of the quranic recitation centres like Daras around the country. So we thank you very much,” Ceesay said.

By Lamin Njie

The case of two women who were arrested for subjecting a five-month-old girl to female genital mutilation was dropped due to insufficient evidence, it has emerged.

Sunkaru Darboe and Saffiatou Darboe from Kiang Sankandi were arrested in March 2016 after they were accused of carrying out female genital mutilation on Aminata Drammeh. The five-month-old girl died shortly after her mutilation. It was the first ever arrests on female genital mutilation since a ban was placed on the practice in 2015.

The Gambia government in a new report on Thursday said the Women’s Act of 2015 as amended criminalises Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).

“Section 32B of the Act prohibits the practice in all its forms and any person found culpable is liable on conviction to a term of three years imprisonment or to a fine of Fifty Thousand Dalasi or both. Where the act results to the death of the victim, the perpetrator is liable to life imprisonment. The Act also imposes a legal duty to report that the act has been done or is being done or about to be done,” the government said in its report on the African Charter on the Rights of Women in Africa.

According to the report, the only FGM case that has reached the courts in The Gambia so far is the case involving Sunkaru Darboe and Saffiatou Darboe.

“However, the case was subsequently withdrawn by the State largely due to insufficient evidence,” the report said.

By Lamin Njie

Victims of former president Yahya Jammeh bogus HIV/AIDS treatment will form part of hundreds of people lined to testify before the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission.

In a new report on Thursday, the government of The Gambia said victims who claim that their rights were violated by the former leader will testify before the TRRC.

“In 2007, the former president Yaya Jammeh conducted a HIV and AIDs treatment program, which ran through to 2016. During the course of treatment, it has been alleged that several affected persons who were enrolled in the program suffered complications and some even lost their lives,” The Gambia’s report on the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights said.

Former president Yahya Jammeh declared in 2007 that he’d invented a cure for HIV/AIDS. The former president’s treatment programme entailed using a mixture of herbal medicine and spiritual healing techniques.

But according to the new report, “this program has been identified as a huge set-back for affected persons who enrolled in the treatment program and were required to abandon the use of their Anti- retroviral and intake unconventional medication in order to be treated.”

The report said: “As a result, the survivors have lodged a civil suit at the High Court and are claiming damages in tort for the harm ‘pain and suffering’ and loss they suffered during the treatment programme.

“The Survivors found the claim for damages on the unlawful imprisonment and the inhumane and degrading treatment they allegedly endured during the months of January through July 2007. The survivors also claim that the treatment programme also violated their constitutional right to be free from torture.

“Additionally, as a part of the Transitional Justice process initiated by the Government, a Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission Act has been enacted to establish a Commission to address past human rights violations and impunity of the former regime.

“This platform will therefore be another avenue for their stories to be heard and acknowledged by the Government and possibly give them an opportunity to be granted reparations.”

By Lamin Njie

The Gambia government has said in a report that 13 percent of The Gambia’s adult population suffer from mental illness.

The Gambia government on Thursday presented the country’s report on the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights to the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights at its 64^th session currently holding in Egypt. The report addresses human rights issues in The Gambia spanning over 20 years.

According to the report, Gambians who suffer from mental illness “should enjoy full human rights, including the right to appropriate health care, education, shelter and employment, and the freedom from discrimination and abuse.”

The report said: “Communities in The Gambia are faced with numerous mental, neurological and psychosocial disorders that undermined development. Based on the prevalence rate from the World Mental Health Survey in 2004, it is estimated that approximately 27000 people in The Gambia (3% of the population aged 15 years and more) are suffering from severe mental disorders and a further 9100 (10% of the population aged 15 years and more) are suffering from moderate to mild mental disorders.

“This means that at least 118,000 people in The Gambia (13% of the adult population) are likely to be affected by mental disorders which require varying degrees of treatment and care.

“Mental health treatment and care should promote and protect the autonomy and liberty of people with mental disorders. People with mental disorders have the right to be treated in the most effective least restrictive and least intrusive manner. People with mental disorders, due to their particular vulnerability to human rights violations, may require specific legal and quasi-legal frameworks and safeguards to ensure that their human rights are promoted and protected.”

By Lamin Njie

A new report by the Gambia government has said that The Gambia currently has 23 prisoners on death row.

“Currently, there are twenty-three (23) prisoners sentenced to death, out of which twenty-one (21) were convicted for murder; one (1) for unlawfully causing death and one (1) for manslaughter,” said The Gambia’s report on the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights which was presented by the minister of justice Abubacarr Tambadou to the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights at its 64^th session in Egypt on Thursday.

The report added: “It is worth noting that despite the fact that the death penalty remains on the statute books since 1995, the only executions took place in 2012 when nine death row prisoners were executed.

“Since then, the moratorium which existed prior to 2012 has been restored. In 2017, the President announced a moratorium and signed the second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights has been signed and ratified.”

By Lamin Njie

The Gambia government on Thursday submitted the country’s on the African Charter on Human and People`s Rights to the African Commission, the first time in 25 years.

Through Justice Minister Abubacarr Tambadou, the government also submitted the country’s initial report on the African Charter on the Rights of Women in Africa (Maputo Protocol).

A statement from the ministry of justice on Friday said the reports were presented at the 64^th ordinary session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ currently holding in Sharm El Shaikh, Egypt.

A six-man delegation made up of Minister of Justice Abubacarr Tambadou, Solicitor General Cherno Marenah, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health Muhammadou Jaiteh, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare Bulli Dibba, the Deputy Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education, Jerreh Sanyang and State Counsel Bafou Jeng is currently in Egypt for the event, according to the justice ministry statement.

Also in attendance from The Gambia were the Chairperson and a Commissioner of the newly established National Human Rights Commission of The Gambia, Mr. Emmanuel D Joof and Mr. Njundu Drammeh respectively, it added.