Gambia Youth for Unity is deeply concerned and condemns the arrest of over forty youths from Kartong, West Coast Region including women and children. “We condemn unethical mining taking place in Kartong and we call on the Gambian authorities to halt mining operations and release the detained youths whose action shows that they were merely protecting their lands from illegal mining,” said Omar Bah, GYU Chair.

On November 20th, a Gambian local newspaper Foroyaa issued a story headlined “Kartong Community questions the benefit of heavy metal mining”. The aggrieved youths from Kartong visited Foroyaa to lodge a complaint, questioning the benefit of mineral mining in their community.

According to one of the complainant, it’s alleged that the mining activities have resulted to the death of a 12 year old boy. On November 20th, a Gambian local newspaper Foroyaa issued a story headlined “Kartong Community questions the benefit of heavy metal mining”. The aggrieved youths from Kartong visited Foroyaa to lodge a complaint, questioning the benefit of mineral mining in their community. According to one of the complainant, it’s alleged that the mining activities have resulted to the death of a 12 year old boy. “A 12 year boy in grade 6, drowned in one of the pits on the day after the Muslim feast of ‘Tobaski’.” Mineral mining has not only resulted in loss of life but is also threatening agricultural production and the pits have cultivated an infestation of mosquitoes in the community.

According to media reports, the youths of Kartong have been protesting against mineral mining for the past three weeks. On November 22nd, reports indicated that a large gathering of villagers came out to protest against mineral miners. Kartong is located on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean and is famous for its tourism, fishing and rich ecosystems. Mineral mining has threatened the livelihood of the villagers and their community by increasing the rate of soil erosion and sea encroachment. Several metric tons are mined from the village each week over the past six to seven years.

The events of November 22nd resulted in a standoff between youths of Kartong and security forces. This ultimately saw scores of youths arrested for exercising their fundamental rights. GYU therefore calls for calm and specifically to Gambian security forces to release all youths arrested for merely exercising their constitutional right, by protesting against mineral mining. As a youth movement we feel compelled to stand up and condemn the unconstitutional arrest of such environmentally responsible youths who should not be subject to illegal arrest and abuse from security forces sworn to protect them.
“GYU Vision – Striving for a Gambia where every voice is heard in UNITY”

More information is emerging from The Gambia College’s ongoing crisis as students, particularly the final year students are frustrated by the fact that they have lost core courses in public health, alongside other administrative malpractices impacting on their academic courses.

The Gambia College had been a centre for academic excellence since its inception 65 years ago. It was primarily established for the training of teachers, agriculturist, nurses, and public health officers. The students decried that over the years, “the general performance and quality of Gambia College products have been deteriorating.”

“This was first presumed to be due to the influence of the University of the Gambia in the college campus particularly the school of Public Health premises,” the students said, noting that it became consequently clear to them that the college apparently lacks structure and administrative techniques for the smooth running of the institutions.

“We the students are not given our monthly stipends for at least three months coupled with the persistent lack of chairs and tables. We always scramble for chairs before each lecture and sometimes if there is not any, we have to perch on tables like birds,” they explained.

According to leaks to Fatu Radio Network, some of those core subjects, mostly taught by one Mr. Ebrima Fatajo at the school of public health but were withdrawn from him… “At first, when professor Kah was the overseer of the College, we blamed him for our misfortunes, but now with the so called principal, Mr. Abubacarr Jallow, we begin to see things differently, albeit worse.”

“[As a result] we do not understand anything in public health and most of our grades are very poor. [We] even heard the rumor that the principal and the head of school are fixing new results for our class in order to protect a female student called Adama Jallow and some of her colleagues who are not in academic good standing.”

According to reports, College Principal Jallow made “his proud and pompous third wife” Adama Jallow, his secretary, and even enrolled her into the School of Public Health. All the student of the school of Public Health knew the caliber and low intelligent quotient of Adama Jallow. She flaws the school rules that no one dare to speak, they added.

Mrs. Adama Jallow, as secretary to the principal, comes to school anytime she wants in any class, except Mr. Fatajo’s. According to reports, Mr. Fatajo won the respect and honour of the students for several reasons, among them a regulation he instituted that every student must attend classes regularly and punctually.

“If any student fails to attend 80% of his classes, you do not sit to his exams…. Mr. Fatajo is the only good lecturer at the School of Public Health,” the students said.

However, this was to bring a clash between Mr. Fatajo and the school principal, whose third wife, secretary and public health student fall victim to the 80% attendance requirement in 2014, May/June exams:

“When Fatajo stopped her from sitting to exams, it nearly caused a cancellation of the exams because Mr. Solomon P.S. Jatta, the Acting Head of School of Public Health, came into the examination hall and ordered that Fatajo’s paper was cancelled, and that the students should disperse. It was then then that Mr. Fatajo stood up and addressed us that the exams would continue, and we did continue…”

After that paper, the public health students were shocked that two letters were pasted on Solomon Jatta’s office door, purported to be sent to Fatajo informing him that he was demoted because Adama Jallow did not sit for those exams.

“The two letters were written by Mr. Abubacarr Jallow, the current principal and Mr. Solomon P.S. Jatta. In Jallow’s capacity as a Principal, such a repugnant communication to a colleague is a professional misdemeanor and [it shows] that he is being managed by his wife of a student, Adama Jallow. …

“Even all the students felt humiliated and disgraced by Mr. Jallow’s actions, but because he is the highest authority, we kept calm. We are even seriously considering to riot against the issue, because lecturers like Mr. Fatajo are the only right ones for the school. He never treated students unfairly and indifferently. He treats everyone as equal.

Dear Gambian creatives,
Excuse my drafting this letter two years too late.

Please stop breaking my heart. I am still healing from the blow of a few young creatives who I placed so much hope on, letting me down. Differentiate between State sponsored and personality sponsored. The personality’s only objective — to dry your ink or to draw that ink in their favor. Your pen is your sword, your words your armor, the genius to string them into a heart fluttering prose, a gift. Your ink, as precious as gold is priceless. Humanity’s elevation your prize. A brighter future for our children your objective. Let your conscience guide you. Words have crushed empires. The griot can sing a King to war just as he can pacify him with his honeyed words, reminding him of his pure lineage.

Join me to turn a new tide. Please reclaim your ink. Forgive yourself and reclaim your ink. Imagine the day of recalling; your words being archived for being an endorsing element of the brutalizing system. We are young now but forever young we will not stay. Reclaim your ink and let us draw a new conscientious blueprint of truth telling.

Let the system of today not trick your senses. It can never fool your heart, for a creative’s heart is ever true. Must be so hard to fight your heart daily! Reclaim your truth.

I look forward to the gushing of your ink razing the path to liberty.

Sincerely,

Khadijah Aja Tambajang

News just arrived at Faturadio that The Gambian dictator; Yahya Jammeh has fired his Secretary General and Presidential Affairs Minister, Lamin Nyabally few hours ago. According to sources, The President blamed Nyabally for lack of doctors in Basse. The sources revealed that Nyabally got in trouble when Jammeh upon enquiring in Basse during the inauguration of a thirty million dalasi health centre in Sabi village, URR as to why the areas is facing shortage of Doctors, was informed by the Health Minister that he did discuss the issue with the Secretary General but no action has been taken since then.

Nyabally was said to be on his way home, kicked out of the tour convoy at the time this report was being prepared. The health centre in Sabi is said to have 30 beds and was funded by Gambians of Sabi roots in the Diaspora.

Former Secretary General, Momodou Lamin Sabally who is currently the MD of the Daily Observer could be recycled back to his old position opined Gambia watchers.

On another development, Yahya, according to the sources has finally left Basse for Mansakonko where he is expected to have a night stop with members of his tour delegation before proceeding.

The United Democratic Party (UDP) is shocked and deeply concerned by the recent statements made by President Yahya Jammeh in Farafeni during his “dialogue the people tour” in which he ridicule past and present Presidents of Senegal.

Footage of the Gambian leader’s speech shown on GRTS Television on Sunday clearly showed him raining insults on the Senegalese leaders. The current President Macky Sall received the main brunt of President Jammeh’s insults whom he described as hypocrite and a stooge for France, among other things. Former Presidents Abdou Diouf and Abdoulaye Wade were also named and heavily ridiculed and caricatured by President Jammeh.

The UDP vehemently condemns President Jammeh’s conduct as it offends all conventional wisdom and decency. By stooping this low in insulting Senegalese leadership, Yahya Jammeh has shown his lack of respect and decorum for anything decent. The Gambian and Senegalese people are one and the same and no amount of immature rhetoric and vitriolic outbursts from the leadership in Banjul will change that.

This latest posture of President Jammeh is as usual at variance with all decent and internationally acceptable diplomatic norms and does not in any way represent the views and attitude of the Gambian people. It is unacceptable for a sitting head of state to make derogatory remarks about his fellow heads of states, present or past. It is as crude and undignified as it is unGambian, undiplomatic and unacceptable.

In this regard, the United Democratic Party (UDP) and indeed all decent, peace loving Gambians, disassociated themselves from President Jammeh’s crude attacks on Senegalese Presidents. Unfortunate as it is, this is the kind of irrational rantings that have come to embody the persona of Jammeh all throughout his life as head of state of the Gambia.

The UDP would like to place on record that the Gambian people have always had unalloyed and untainted love for our brotherly people of Senegal. Until the unfortunate emergence of Jammeh and his rogue regime on our political scene, Gambians have lived peacefully with all our neighbors far and near.

Yahya Jammeh is a lonely, angry and dejected dictator who is despised by everyone at home and abroad and we urge the Senegalese leadership to continue to ignore a dictator who has lost relevance and credibility even in his own country. Looking around, there is failure in every aspect of Gambian public life. The economy is almost floundering and doomed to collapse. Agriculture is almost dead. The health sector is on its knees and there is mounting unemployment across the country. Jammeh has therefore clearly sensed the catastrophe he has created thanks to his bad and ill-advised policies spearheaded by his personal incompetence and ignorance as Head of State for which he wants to use Senegal as scapegoat.

If anything, the recent attacks by Jammeh on Senegalese Presidents, coupled with his misrule have given UDP renewed energy and determination to redouble our efforts in ensuring that this regime that has always been an embarrassment to Gambians becomes history once and for all. Jammeh and his regime are a collateral damage on our national conscience. They are an embarrassment and a huge liability to Gambia.

The United Democratic Party assures all Gambians and our brothers and sisters in Senegal that come 2016, Jammeh will be removed from the helm of affairs which he has held only by foul means for far too long.

Long live the UDP

Long live The Gambia.

UDP Secretariat

Banjul,

18th November, 2015

An underground students’ movement at the Gambia College calling itself ‘The Outlaw’ has threatened to incite action against the administration of the country’s leading tertiary educational institution for its failures to live up to the responsibility of providing the needs and educational aspirations of the college’s student population.

In an underground e-newsletter that was published this week and circulated to the students body and leaked to Fatu Radio Network, the movement said their silence was “just an era [to] strengthen our arms and patiently observing the cruel acts of the evil heads, who were fooled in awe, comfortably resting on the laurels of injustice and corruption, without noticing the HD- Camera-like watchful eyes of the OUTLAW.”

Describing itself as “the satirical and invisible information entity present here on campus”, the Outlaw said it is therefore time for celebration “as we prepare to unveil the smelling wax burnt by these crooks we called leaders.

”The students’ “scramble for chairs, closure of information centers, refusal to accommodate students due to your flimsy excuses, over population on the campus due to your self-centered decisions to make PTC students regular this year, months of pending stipends, failure to commemorate the 65 years anniversary of the noble institution and lot more failures….: is apparently motivating the students to make true their threats to begin taken action unless something is immediately done to address their situation they call “unacceptable”.

“The sweet words from their venomous tongues has done enough corroding of the weak minds as students, as we are frequently fooled and unconditionally threatened to surrender the little rights we are supposed to publicly enjoy,” The Outlaw wrote.

It added that the “abuse of our rights in the endless days at the immeasurable gravity has detrimentally contributed to our dormancy in academic work, with the culprits being hierarchical from the empty barrel in the form of a principal, down to the kleptomaniac and myopic student union.”

“Therefore, our role as the voice of the voiceless is fully renewed with the greater power, as we prepare to drop atomic bombs one by one….,”they stated.

For the College’s students’ union executives, the movement said they are “a tiny broomstick we can break in seconds. The remaining bombshells are still dangling over your bald and blunt heads including your cockroach president ready to be released to immunize your negative attitudes and describe your failure for you.”

The whereabouts of Dictator Jammeh is still a source of misery. As we piece this story together, unconfirmed reports have been making the rounds in Banjul and indeed in the social media that the dictator is finally in Banjul receiving urgent needed medical treatment which was not possible in the provincial town of Base in the Upper River Region of the Gambia. However, so far the information Fatu Radio gathered all point to the fact that Dictator Jammeh is still in Basse. Currently, a large convoy of ministers and senior government officials have just left Basse heading towards Mansakonko, the regional capital of the Lower River Region of the Gambia.

But strangely the Presidential security are still in Basse suggesting that the Dictator is still in Basse. It is very unusual for the ministers to leave without Jammeh. In Presidential tours like this, the delegation including the President himself, cabinet ministers and other officials all move together in one convoy.

In fact one of our sources who is in the tour has just informed us that about two state ministers are still in Basse sitting at the VIP lounge waiting for the President to come out. What is not clear is whether Dictator Jammeh will leave for Mansakonko today.

If everything goes well, Jammeh and entourage are expected to have a night stop in Mansakonko today from where they will go to Kiang and in Kanilai tomorrow.

However, the complete absence of the dictator from public view is fueling the uncertainty about his exact whereabouts. What is clear though is that Jammeh is sick but by all indications, he is trying to proof otherwise.

One of our sources who came into personal contact with the President recently in Janjanbureh in the Central River Region of the Gambia told Fatu Radio Jammeh has lost considerable weight and breathe abnormally heavy. The source said the dictator looked very tired and it was clear that something serious was wrong with him.

Fatu radio is keenly monitoring the situation and will update our audience with any latest information about Dictator Jammeh.

It comes as no surprise that Gambian President Yahya Jammeh would try to divert attention from his current debilitating health issues (contributing to cancellation of his meetings in URR and doctors being dispatched to his bedside), the Kartong sand mining protests resulting to a mass arrests and severe injury to one protester who is being refused medical care, etc. Besides, President Jammeh standing in public and saying Gambia is ending FGM DOES NOT MEAN THE GAMBIA GOVERNMENT IS CRIMINALIZING the act. This move also serves as a diversionary tactic President Jammeh is using to deflect attention from his regime’s horrible human rights abuses. President Jammeh has been making the news for all the wrong reasons, and as usual, this is his way of trying to bring positive news to his declining presidency.

In May 2015, GAMCOTRAP made a plea to The Gambia National Assembly to vote and ban FGM in The Gambia, but those appeals fell on deaf ears. Gambians will tell you that activities and votes by the National Assembly Members (NAMs) are influenced by President Jammeh. Thus, making such a 180 degree U-turn today makes us even more cynical.

The true champion of FGM ERADICATION in the Gambia is GAMCOTRAP, an anti-FGM (female genital mutilation) organization that has spent more than three decades fighting this harmful practice. Founded in 1984, GAMCOTRAP, under the leadership of Dr. Isatou Touray and Amie Bojang-Sissoho have worked tirelessly crusading around the country speaking to FGM practitioners and encouraging them to stop the practice. Although they have faced many instances of sometimes life-threatening resistance from villagers, GAMCOTRAP has achieved huge success in getting FGM practitioners to drop their razors and in its place help develop business opportunities to provide sustainable and alternate incomes for these former adversaries. FGM has been a deeply rooted tradition in Gambian society and it is the likes of GAMCOTRAP who are tirelessly fighting day and night to bring this practice to an end. Imam Baba Leigh, a Muslim cleric who was brutally tortured and currently in exile in USA, has also made enormous contributions in educating the Gambian public against FGM. Imam Leigh’s contribution is important because many Gambians believe FGM is sanctioned by Islamic Law. It also worth noting that a recent entrant, Jaha Dukureh has been a formidable addition to the cause.

Another concern to observers though regarding this whole saga, is the fact that Gambian asylum seekers in Europe and America will face challenges in having their cases approved due to this announcement by President Jammeh, and this may lead to many deportations which will be very tragic since the enforcement of the ban will be almost nonexistent.