By Lamin Njie
Majority of Gambians trust the Gambia Armed Forces and believe the military protects citizens from external and internal security threats, a new study has said.
Pan African research institution Afrobarometer in a new report titled, ‘Gambians Trust the Armed Forces But are Split over the Presence of ECOMIG,’ said popular trust in the Gambia Armed Forces was strongest in Central River Region (South), with a trust level of up to 71 percent. At least 1,200 adult Gambians were interviewed in a survey that was conducted between July and August of last year.
Sait Matty Jaw, the lead researcher, told The Fatu Network: “The objective is to give public a voice in policy making by providing high quality public opinion data to policy makers and other interested stakeholders.”
He added: “Since Jammeh’s defeat in the 2016 elections, the military has returned to its barracks, arrested so-called “jungulars” accused of extra-judicial killings and torture under orders from Jammeh, reinstated some members of the army who had been dismissed under Jammeh, and sought to establish its independence from political control.
“The army has also made efforts to strengthen civil-military relations in the country particularly its relationship with the media fraternity resulting to timely and accurate news dispatch resulting to less negative coverage as compared to the past.”
Afrobarometer directs a pan-African, nonpartisan research network that conducts public attitude surveys on democracy, governance, economic conditions, and related issues in African countries. Seven rounds of surveys were completed in up to 38 countries between 1999 and 2018. Round 8 surveys in 2019/2020 are planned in at least 35 countries.
Afrobarometer conducts face-to-face interviews in the language of the respondent’s choice with nationally representative samples. The Afrobarometer team in the Gambia, led by the Centre for Policy, Research and Strategic Studies (CepRass), interviewed 1,200 adult Gambians in July and August 2018.
