The Fatu Network has got a disturbing news from one of our trusted sources in the security forces of large scale recruitment of Guinea Bissau nationals into The Gambia National Army (GNA). The move is causing alarm even among a usually docile and despondent GNA. A trusted source who has reached us said “for sometime now OGA (referring to the president) has been ordering the top brass of the GNA to enlist into the army people from Guinea Bissau who are mainly youths.”
Our trusted source said these new recruits are mainly based in Kaninlai….the birth place of president Yahya Jammeh. Even though our source could not assertain the reason for enlisting these foreign nationals into the army, he said the general suspicion within the GNA is that they might be used by the dictator to unleash terror on innocent civilians during the election period. He said: “I can confirm to you that OGA is definitely unsettled by the current state of affairs and he is really afraid of the elections. It is therefore reasonable to suspect that these new recruits could be the ones he may rely on to commit atrocities against the Gambian people.”
Indeed for years now President Jammeh is known to be relying on a group of militia called the “Junglers” who are mainly people from the Southern Senegalese Province of Cassamance that share the same ethnicity with President Jammeh.
Further President Jammeh for years has been interfering in the internal affairs of Guinea Bissau where forces loyal to the slained General Ansumana Mane where hosted and camped in Kaninlai which led to a deplomatic fallout with Guinea Bissau at some point prompting former President Kumba Yalla to threaten to invade The Gambia.
It is also clear that President Jammeh has lost the balance of political power he used to wield in Guinea Bissau especially since President Sall of Senegal became president. It is not clear whether these new circuits are also being trained to cause political disturbances in Guinea Bissau which has witnessed a series of military coups.
Whatever the case, our security source said the army is gravely concerned about the latest trend.
Our source also said that for two weeks now, the APRC nominated member of parliament, Hon Babou Gaye Sonko has been visiting the main military barracks campaigning openly and urging all newly recruited members of the army to get registered to massively vote of the ruling APRC party.
Our source said the army as an institution is typically concern about this politicization of the institution which suppose to remain above partisan politics.
