The youth wing of the United Democratic Party has lashed out at the president of President Barrow Youths for National Development Dou Sanno.

The youth wing in a statement signed by secretary general Kemo Bojang on Monday accused Ansu Singhateh of trying to tarnish the image of the leader of UDP Ousainou Darboe.

The statement read: “It has come to the notice of the united democratic party youth wing that on the 9th of February through an online media platform, the national coordinator of the Barrow youths for national development made claims which have been found to be false and misleading.

“It can be recalled that on the 1st of December 2017, a celebration was organized at the buffer zone in Tallinding, where thousands of Gambians gathered to grace the one year anniversary of the change of government that average Gambians made a reality.

“On this same day, a group of Gambians launched a movement with the alleged aim of supporting the agenda of President Adama Barrow. As foreign affairs minister at the time, his Excellency Ousainou Darboe, current vice president of the Gambia and party leader of the great united Democratic Party graced the occasion.

“We will like to make it vehemently clear to the general public that Honorable Ousainou Darboe did not attend the celebration as the launch of the youth organization but as a stakeholder in the coalition government celebrating a year in office and the leader of the political party which has been struggling and fighting to see a liberated Gambia, from the grips of tyranny contrary to what was said and reported by a member of the president Barrow youths for national development.

“We will also want to make it clear that the party leader of the united Democratic Party has never requested nor has he ever worn a t shirt of this said movement or organization as alleged by this said individual. We will also want to point out that the accusation made against Honorable Ousainou Darboe being issued a membership card is also false and terribly misleading.

“It is rather unfortunate that we will go this low as a country to try and tarnish the image of great men and women who have given life and blood to see our country free. The UDP youth wing will want to make it categorically clear that we will not sit by and watch the name and image of our party leader be tainted in the name of gaining cheap political points. We will also want to remind these set of youths that the united Democratic Party is on course and will not be derailed by any ill intended motives.

“The United Democratic Party youth wing will also urge the president to remember that the country has a national youth council which was set up by an act of parliament to oversee and represent young people in the Gambia. We will want to urge him to disband this youth movement and work hand in hand with the national youth council when it comes to youth affairs.

“On a final note, as alluded by our party leader, we are assuring the president that we are in full support of this transitional government in its transitional mandate and the country’s national development plan.”

Editor’s Note: The UDP youth wing in its statement addressed Mr Ansu Singhateh as the national coordinator of Barrow Youth Movement when he is in fact the president. The national coordinator of the movement is Dou Sanno. We apologise for the misrepresentation of the facts which is due to the lack of care on the part of the UDP youth wing.

By Lamin Njie

Njie Manneh has said that President Adama Barrow is The Gambia’s Nelson Mandela and will rule for 20 years.

“Adama Barrow is the Nelson Mandela of The Gambia. Any other person who calls himself Nelson Mandela is fooling himself,” Manneh a staunch President Barrow apologist said in a WhatsApp audio message made available to The Fatu Network.

Pressure is mounting on President Barrow as the three years deal that shot him to power edges to its climax.

According to Manneh who is a member of the President Barrow Youths for National Development, President Barrow will stay beyond the three years and will go on to rule The Gambia until 2035.

“I hear people advocating for President Barrow to step aside after three years. I want to tell everyone that President Barrow is the Nelson Mandela of The Gambia from 2016 to 2035,” Manneh said.

By Lamin Njie

Momodou Kaddy Cham on Monday told the TRRC he saw people scampering for safety on the day of the 1994 military takeover.

Cham, popularly known as MC Cham, is one of The Gambia’s last remaining independence heroes.

Testifying before the TRRC on Monday, the Basse-born elder statesman said he got to know about the coup at Serrekunda market.

He said: “I got to know about it… My first wife… I was having some building works at Fajara opposite the station. And my first wife told me, ‘take me to Serrekunda market and drop me there because [it] is cheaper, this cooking stuff – vegetables and what have you’. I took her with two of the work men…

“So we came to the market. I stopped by, off the road, on the side of the police station and then suddenly I saw people running helter skelter and she came running also panting and the two carpenters. There was big confusion at the Serrekunda market. And then everybody said, ‘MC, let’s go let’s go.’ I said, ‘no, before I go I must know what I am running away from and from what side it is coming so that I can avoid it.”

By Lamin Njie

Gambians have slammed as false claims by President Adama Barrow that one can purchase a bag of rice for less than 1000 dalasis.

President Barrow in a GRTS exclusive claimed that the price of a bag of rice has gone down and than one can get it for less than 1000 dalasis.

A video of the interview has emerged online and Gambians have been reacting to it with Fatty Hydara commenting: “Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God! Is Adama Barrow who is misleading Gambians or is his adviser’s who are misleading him? Bilahi Barrow i will never forgive you for this misleading words. Jeh jeh how can a leader sit comfortably in front of a camera and open his big mouth and says something which is not true. Even his body language is sayings Sir what you are saying is wrong! Mbakoko aliko Kambia!”

Kebba Sarr said: “Which country’s commodity prices are u talking about? We know the previous and present prices at Picton Street anyway.”

Lamin Camara said: “Dou Sanno and others are giving him wrong information.”

Baldeh Abdullah said: “Da journalist shld av stopped him n ask him abt da market location famz……Rice 1000.”

Modou Drammeh said: “Adu stop the weed is very strong for u, maybe the price he’s talking about is in state house mini market.”

By Lamin Njie

The spokesperson of the Gambia Armed Forces has justified why the army refused to intervene in the 2016 political impasse.

2016 made a name for itself as the year The Gambia nearly went to war following the December 1 elections.

Former president Yahya Jammeh was seeking a fifth term in office when he spectacularly lost to new boy Adama Barrow.

Jammeh who had over two decades under his belt as president conceded defeat in the elections only to change his mind five days later, a decision which triggered a bitter standoff.

Most Gambians were expecting the Gambian army to sweep in as a way of restoring sanity only to find the institution well removed from the crisis.

It took the activation of soldiers from Senegal and elsewhere in the Ecowas region to remove Jammeh from power after more than one month of tension.

But army spokesman Lamin K Sanyang told West Coast Radio the army concluded that its intervention would have been catastrophic.

“We refused to intervene because we considered the whole thing as a political problem that can be solved through negotiations and that any attempt to fight Jammeh would have been chaotic,” Sanyang said.

The army major added: “Just imagine despite the fact that no single shot was fired Gambians were fleeing the country in their thousands; how about if we fired bullets? We knew it was not going to pan out well for the country because [The] Gambia cannot contain war even for one hour, talk less a month.”

Five paintings attributed to Adolf Hitler failed to find buyers at an auction Saturday held amid anger at the sale of Nazi memorabilia.

High starting prices of between 19,000 and 45,000 euros ($21,000 and $50,000) and lingering suspicions about the authenticity of the artworks were thought to have scared off potential buyers.

The Weidler auction house did not comment on the reasons for the failure but said the paintings could yet be sold at a later date.

Nuremberg’s mayor Ulrich Maly had earlier condemned the sale as being “in bad taste”.

Among the items that failed to sell were a mountain lake view and a painting of a wicker armchair with a swastika symbol presumed to have belonged to the late Nazi dictator.

The Weidler auction house held the “special sale” in Nuremberg, the city in which Nazi war criminals were tried in 1945.

Days before the sale a number of the artworks were withdrawn on suspicion they were fakes with prosecutors stepping in.

Sales of alleged artworks by Hitler — who for a time tried to make a living as an artist in his native Austria — regularly spark outrage that collectors are willing to pay high prices for art linked to the country’s Nazi past.

“There’s a long tradition of this trade in devotional objects linked to Nazism,” Stephan Klingen of the Central Institute for Art History in Munich told AFP. “Every time there’s a media buzz about it… and the prices they’re bringing in have been rising constantly.

Personally, that’s something that quite annoys me.” In Germany, public displays of Nazi symbols are illegal but exceptions can be made, in educational or historic contexts for instance.

To comply with the law, the auction house pixellated the swastikas on the wicker chair and a blue-and-white Meissen porcelain vase in catalogue photos, and covered them up on-site.

But none of the paintings included any of the totalitarian party’s insignias.

According to Klingen, Hitler had the style of “a moderately ambitious amateur” but his creations did not stand out from “hundreds of thousands” of comparable works from the period — making their authenticity especially hard to verify.

Islamic cleric, three others arrested with human skull in Ogun The watercolours, drawings and paintings bearing “Hitler” signatures featured views of Vienna or Nuremberg, female nudes and still life works, the auction house said.

They were offered by 23 different owners. Prosecutors on Wednesday collected 63 artworks from the Weidler premises bearing the signature “A.H.” or “A. Hitler”, including some not slated to go under the hammer.

Nuremberg-Fuerth prosecutor’s office said it had opened an investigation against persons unknown “on suspicion of falsifying documents and attempted fraud”, chief prosecutor Antje Gabriels-Gorsolke told AFP.

“If they turn out to be fakes, we will then try to determine who knew what in the chain of ownership,” she said. Weidler said in a statement that the paintings’ withdrawal from sale did “not automatically mean they are fakes”.

A 27 year old Indian man, Raphael Samuel is set to embark on an impossible mission of dragging his parents to court for giving birth to him without his consent.

The Mumbai-based business executive told the BBC that he has been obsessed with the question of why his parents felt entitled to bring him into this world without first asking him.

Although he admits it is practically impossible to ask a child for consent before they are born, Samuel insists children should not be born at all.

Samuel said, “There’s no point to humanity. So many people are suffering. If humanity is extinct, Earth and animals would be happier. They’ll certainly be better off. Also no human will then suffer. Human existence is totally pointless”

His activism is propelled by anti-natalism – a philosophy that argues that life is so full of misery that people should stop procreating immediately, one which he says he had held since he was five.

“I was a normal kid. One day I was very frustrated and I didn’t want to go to school but my parents kept asking me to go. So I asked them: ‘Why did you have me?’ And my dad had no answer. I think if he’d been able to answer, maybe I wouldn’t have thought this way,” Samuel said.

His mum, Kavita Karnad Samuel responding in a statement said, “I must admire my son’s temerity to want to take his parents to court knowing both of us are lawyers. And if Raphael could come up with a rational explanation as to how we could have sought his consent to be born, I will accept my fault.

“His belief in anti-natalism, his concern for the burden on Earth’s resources due to needless life, his sensitivity toward the pain experienced unwittingly by children while growing up and so much more has been ruefully forgotten.

“I’m very happy that my son has grown up into a fearless, independent-thinking young man. He is sure to find his path to happiness.”

Samuel created a Facebook page to advance his cause a year ago. The page called Nihilanand has messages such as “Isn’t forcing a child into this world and forcing it to have a career, kidnapping, and slavery?”, “Your parents had you instead of a toy or a dog, you owe them nothing, and you are their entertainment.” (Vanguard)

By Lamin Njie

The Gambia Immigration Department has rejected claims that it has been dispatching its officers to countries in Europe to identify Gambians for deportation.

Gambian immigrants in Europe have been gripped by apprehension as the EU continues to work with the Gambia government to send them back.

“We have not deployed any of our personnel to anywhere to be identifying Gambians for deportation. What we can authoritatively tell our viewers is that we have our officers at some embassies in Europe where these officers will help authorities to confirm, I want people to understand the thin line between confirmation and identification,” Mamanding S Dibba, the spokesperson of the Gambia Immigration Department exclusively told Gambia Talents last week.

According to Dibba, the department has “seen it time without number that citizens of other countries will claim to be Gambians.”

“…Some two or three years ago when this country was not democratically ruled and most people fled this country to look for better lives elsewhere, lot of citizens of other countries have used this opportunity to claim our citizenship. As a result, complaints have been coming to us so much that we seen the necessity to have our liaison officers to help verify such claims made in respect of Gambian citizenship,” Dibba said.

Deputy leader of the National Reconciliation Party, Musa Suso has bragged that his party laid the groundwork for the forming of Coalition 2016.

In 2016, seven political parties formed a united front and contested against former president Yahya Jammeh.

And speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, Suso said: ‘The realization of this coalition was created by the NRP. The spot counting was brought up by NRP. I can say and boost that NRP has brought the struggle, all the liberation. It was here in the NRP that the credule of the opposition coalition as born and created and christen here. The first letter of the coalition was written in this office.”

According to him, the idea of spot counting was suggested by NRP and it was the party that engaged the Independence Electoral Commission for the introduction of the spot counting.
He added that when the 11-day presidential election timetable was made, his party leader confronted the other party leaders to consider the eleven days to even boycott the elections but that other leaders never agreed to him because ‘they were ambitious to contest the election.’

However, he said: “Halifa organise a small conference, we attended three conferences at Kairaba. PDOIS finance three conferences. That is the financing PDOIS is talking about because Halifa initiated it and it was purposely for the presidential aspirants.”

The National Reconciliation Party is led by Hamat Bah.

By Lamin Njie

A section of the Gambian public has raised the alarm over fake dalasi notes circulating in the market.

Reports reaching The Fatu Network on Thursday say counterfeit dalasi notes are in circulation in the market.

“Please enlighten the masses that there are fake 200 dalasi currency note in circulation in the market. A friend of mine who is a shopkeeper is a victim,” one Alhagie Jammeh told The Fatu Network.

The Fatu Network on Friday contacted the governor of the Central Bank of The Gambia Bakary Jammeh for comment but he neither answered several phone calls nor did he reply to a text message.

By Lamin Njie

A US-based Gambian journalist has said that it’s only by the grace of God that President Adama Barrow is president of The Gambia.

In an opinion piece made available to The Fatu Network, Sainey Darboe who is Gunjur Online’s editor-in-chief said: “I can understand Ousainou Darboe’s withering desolation with the accompanying sense of precariousness as he finds himself subject of ridicule by a poorly educated and low IQ president surrounded by opportunists who clearly don’t know any better.

“It’s only by the grace of God Barrow burst on the political scene at a time when anyone else would have inflicted an electoral defeat on Jammeh due to the cascading effects of two decades of bad governance, disastrous foreign policy choices and economic mismanagement that left the majority of Gambians in crushing poverty.

“Instead of setting about the task of getting the country back on track, the clueless president is deeply immersed in party politics and embracing, with warmth, despicable pieces of human scum from the Jammeh era out of pure political expediency.”

A campaigner against female genital mutilation who had been diagnosed with terminal cancer was sent away from a Derby hospital because he was not eligible for free NHS care.

Saloum, 54, who asked for his surname not to be used, fled the Gambia 10 years ago after risking his life by challenging the government for condoning the widespread use of FGM. Three-quarters of Gambian women aged 15-49 have undergone FGM.

After Saloum reached the UK he was subjected to labour exploitation and remained under the radar of the authorities until he collapsed on a Derby street on 27 December last year and was taken to Royal Derby hospital.

He was diagnosed with two brain tumours and lung cancer and given just days to live. After being treated at the hospital for several days, Saloum was told that as an undocumented migrant he was not eligible for further NHS treatment unless he could pay for it. He could not and was discharged.

Days later, after pressure from the charity Doctors of the World, the hospital indicated it could provide care, but Saloum is currently staying in a small bedsit after friends and members of the local community raised money to pay for accommodation.

Saloum’s friends are looking after him in shifts. He is extremely weak, coughs frequently, and while speaking to the Guardian he was drifting in and out of consciousness.

On Monday, Saloum received a bill from the hospital for £8,397 for the treatment received before his care was terminated. He cannot pay the bill.

“I ran away from my country to come here after I spoke out against FGM,” he said. “I’ve never done anything wrong and I’ve never been in trouble with the police.”
He said that until he collapsed he had no idea he was ill.

“I had been having headaches and was taking paracetamol,” he said. “When I was in the hospital I was in a coma for three days, I didn’t know what was happening.”

One of his friends Fatou, 38, said she was shocked that despite a request for Saloum to be discharged at 6pm to allow people to organise accommodation for him, staff said he had to leave by midday.

“It is so inhumane to treat someone with brain tumours and lung cancer in this way,” Fatou said. “We know his condition is terminal. When he was diagnosed in the hospital we were told he only had about five days to live.

“It was the way things were handled that was so upsetting. He was told to leave because he could not pay for his care and was not eligible for NHS care. We felt there was no humanity. All we want is for him to receive the treatment he needs to make him comfortable for however long he has left.”

Lucy Jones, the director of programmes at Doctors of the World, which is supporting Saloum, said: “We were horrified to hear that a terminally ill patient was discharged from the care of all healthcare professionals and left to fend for himself in the community, causing a great deal of stress at an already devastating time.

“… This case shows the hostile environment is alive and well in the NHS, forcing clinical staff to withhold care from dying patients. All doctors and nurses should be able to treat the patient in front of them, not least to ease pain and suffering at the end of their life.”
Dr Magnus Harrison, the medical director at University Hospitals of Derby and Burton, said:

“We provide care to overseas patients in line with national legislation that outlines which patients are eligible for free NHS treatment. Treatment in NHS emergency departments is free for patients who are not ordinarily resident, although any subsequent treatment as a result of admission to hospital is chargeable.” (Guardian)

Senegal’s former President Abdoulaye Wade has called on Senegalese voters to boycott the upcoming presidential elections.

Senegalese head to the polls on February 24 to elect a new president.

The poll comes as uncertainty continues to grip one of the country’s main opposition parties, the Senegalese Democratic Party.

The party’s candidate, Karim Wade, was disqualified from taking part in the elections following his conviction and subsequent jailing on corruption charges.

Karim Wade is a son to ex-president Wade and has been in Qatar since his release from prison in 2016.

The senior Wade who returned to Senegal from France on Thursday accused incumbent president Macky Sall of employing dubious tactics.

Wade also urged Sall’s four opponents to not give credibility to the vote and urged Senegalese to burn their voting cards.

Meanwhile the Head of Communication for Président Macky Sall Campaign El Hadj Hamidou Kasse told The Fatu Network ex-president’s Wade’s “call for violence is a challenge to the Senegalese state”.

“We are a State governed by the rule of law, which oversees the respect of the electoral calendar, the free expression of citizens in these elections and the security of persons and property. Those who try to undermine the rights of citizens are thus exposed to the law. In addition, the election campaign has been going on for a week in calm over the entire national territory. This climate of peace will be preserved until polling day,” Kasse said.