Winterswijk gives football materials to Jambanjelly

Sports materials donated to Jambanjelly (Photo Credit: Alagie Lamin Camara)

Biko to play Algeria’s Es Setif in champions’ league

Gamcel faces Armed Forces in Confed Cup

New comers Steve Biko faces tough test in African Champions League (Photo Credit: KickOff Gambia)

The Gambia: 2014 national budget is D8.6 billion

The budget estimate includes a budget support of D313 million from World and African Development banks. (Photo credit: Central Bank of The Gambia, CBG)

The Gambia Jails Former Government Officials

In August, The Gambia's President Yahya Jammeh had vowed never to forgive the three former top officials of his government (Photo credit: Seyllou/AFP/Nov2011)

The Gambia Government say to levy heavy tax on tobacco

The new measures came 17 days after an anti-drugs and tobacco activist hints at stiffer tobacco control measures (Photo credit: Demba Kandeh/Globe/FPI/Dec2012)

5 years jail term for opposition national treasurer in Gambia

Judge said he is “satisfied that the prosecution has proven its case with certainty required by the law" (Photo: Daily Observer)

Again, GPU ask Gambia government to investigate killing of Deyda Hydara

“The killers of Deyda Hydara must be brought to justice now,” demands Gibairu Janneh, the journalists Union’s executive director (Photo credit: Unknown)

Stalwart to lunch debut album ‘Di Boss’ Dec 20

A young boy displays a poster of Stalwart's DI BOSS Album which include the song Show Love To D Children (Photo credit: Stalwart/Facebook)

South Africa President And Global Icon Nelson Mandela Has Died

Current African dictators and selfish power-hungry leaders have taken Mr Mandela for a role model but have blatantly refused to be inspired by his democratic ideals of freedom, justice and equality.  Photo Credit: biography.com

UN resolution on the right to privacy, a first step: Expert

Special Rapporteur on the right to freedom of opinion and expression, Frank La Rue, telling the Geneva-based Human Rights Council on June 2013 "Surveillance technologies used by Governments must not violate their citizens’ privacy." UN Photo/Jean-Marc Ferré

Nana Grey-Johnson axed 4 months after presiding over ‘draconian’ internet law

On World Press Freedom Day 2013, Mr Grey-Johnson accused Gambian media of “reporting negatively” about the country, which according to him, is driving away investors (Photo credit: Modou S. Joof/TNBES/Globe/FPI).

Newspaper employee detained for 'insulting' President Jammeh

English: Serrekunda, street scenes (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

(Gambia Affairs) - Police in Kotu are keeping in custody an employee of privately-owned Foroyaa newspaper, Mass Kah, over allegations of denigrating and insulting President Yahya Jammeh during a discussion at his home in Serekunda.

According to police Public Relations Officer, Assistant Supreintendent David Kujabi, Mr Kah was arrested on November 14, 2013 at his home and initially detained at Serekunda police station before being transferred to Kotu police station, about 13 kilometers Southwest of the capital, Banjul.

Gambia ends ties with ‘shocked’ Taiwan after 18 years

Taiwan regrets President Jammeh’s ‘personal style’

President Yahya Jammeh (in white) says Gambia will “remain friends” with Taiwanese people [EPA]

3 IFAD-funded projects in Gambia in final phase-out stages

IFAD and local project officials visit a rice field in Central River Region of the Gambia under the Ifad-funded PIWAMP project (Photo credit: M.E.Njie)

Gambia: IFAD link farmers with microfinance institutions

Farmers listening keenly to statements that suggest saving with microfinance institutions will help them access loans easily (Photo Credit: Mamadou Edrisa NJie)

Nigerian president Goodluck Ebele Jonathan visit to The Gambia

• Calls for strong intra-Africa trade for economic growth

• Goodluck Jonathan promises to bring Boko Haram down 

• Jonathan, Jammeh call for support of transitional process in Guinea Bissau  

 

PRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan and his Gambian counterpart, President Yahya Jammeh, on Saturday, in Banjul, insisted on Africa’s demand for the urgent reformation of the United Nations (Photo Credit: Nigerian Tribune)

Gambia had share of ‘rare hybrid solar eclipse’

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

The Gambia experienced a solar eclipse on Sunday which geographers say is a “rare hybrid eclipse”. It lasted for about half an hour (from around 11:45am) in which a ring of sunlight was still visible, giving a partial eclipse.

A hybrid solar eclipse is an unusual eclipse that morphs between a total eclipse – in which the moon completely blots out the sun – and an annular eclipse, in which a ring of sunlight is still visible around the moon, astronomers say.

This year's event is a rare hybrid eclipse, where for part of the event, the sun's light is not completely covered. Such events, called annular eclipses, are dangerous to watch directly, says the National Geographic Centre.

‘Information is Crucial to Sustainable Development’

Participants (Photo: Mamadou Edrisa Njie)

Information is crucial to sustainable development and this (BAJ-Gambia awareness) project aims to promote sustainable development through the provision of accurate, timely and cost-effective information to shareholders, says Kebba Bojang, national country coordinator, Global Environmental Facility (GEF).

He was speaking on Thursday 31 October during the official launch of $25,000 Biodiversity Action Journalists-Gambia (BAJ-Gambia) project on “public awareness [creation] on environmental protection” held at Tango conference hall at Fajara.

The project is intended to create awareness creation on environmental protection and conservation techniques, create a platform for information sharing on matters relating to the environment, and enhance public awareness on environmental protection and mitigation strategies. 

More to an Imam than Leading Prayer Congregations

Dr Isatou Touray flanked on the right by Dr Hassan Shire Sheikh receives the Award for Baba Leigh (Photo Credit: Sainey MK Marenah)

When Imam Baba Leigh was declared winner of the first-ever pan-African human rights defenders award, broad smiles and loud cries of joy simultaneously filled Kairaba hotel’s giant Jaama Hall peopled by hundreds of human rights defenders from across Africa and beyond. 
 

The atmosphere was emotionally charged, especially for rights activist Dr Isatou Touray who, like Baba Leigh, has had her share of the repression in Gambia, a country once known to be a model of democracy in Africa.

Scrubbing up dry tears in her face, she tells me: “I cried because I’m happy. I went through a long road of reflection. We’ve suffered a lot. He [Baba Leigh] was incarcerated for no just cause.”

Gambia: Football body lift ban on ousted president

The Kinteh-led executive committee was dissolved by Gambia’s sports ministry on March 2, 2012 and banned by a local football normalisation committee on July 15 2013 from holding office (Photo/Picasaweb/freedom).

The Gambia: Expulsion of Lebanese business mogul withdrawn

President Jammeh, who sent Tajudeen packing in June, says the Lebanese business magnet is free to return (Photo Credit: AFP)

A Lebanese business tycoon who was asked out of The Gambia on June 4 by President Jammeh has been told on Friday he can return.  

Hussein Tajudeen, proprietor of Tajco Company Limited, was declared Persona Non-Grata and asked to leave the West African country within 72 hours over allegations he was “involved in undesirable business activities which have very serious health and economic consequences to the people and State [of The Gambia].”

Now, an October 25 press statement stated the Gambian leader has pardoned Mr Tajudeen and has given him the green light to return as of this month.  

The Gambia's Central Bank ends suspension of money transfer operator, Ria

In June, The Gambia suspends Ria Financial Services and two other money transfer operators, as national currency continues to weaken. (Photo Credit: All In London)

The Gambia’s Central Bank (CBG) on Wednesday announced it is ending the suspension of the money transfer operator, Ria Financial Services.

Ria and two other money transfer operators [Money Express, and W@ri] were suspended in June - as the national currency, the Dalasi, continues to weaken against major foreign currencies and rising foreign exchange rates.

‘Bad human rights record’ led to Gambia’s Commonwealth exit’

While reports link Gambia's Commonwealth exit to a New York hotel protest, the Hamat Bah-led NRP says the regime is aware of a possible backlash at  the Commonwealth summit next month and decided to pull out (Photo/SoutAfrica)

‘Gambia Government Tarnished Own Image’

UDP Leader Ousainou Darboe (Photo/DailyNews)

“I believe that this (Gambia) government’s image was tarnish by itself,” according to Ousainou Darboe, leader of the main opposition, the United Democratic Party (UDP), who was responding to the October 4 claims of “Relentless Smear Campaign against The Gambia”.

The way you treat your citizen tells a lot, Darboe told local journalists on Tuesday, a day before he was due for questioning by the country secret agency, the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) in relation to investigations into Amadou Sanneh (UDP National Treasurer)’s “asylum fraud allegations”.

Gambian President: ‘Commonwealth withdrawal is non-negotiable’

Jammeh says the “Commonwealth remains at best a neo-colonial institution and at worst an animal farm, an idea which The Gambia will never subscribe to”. (Photo/EPA)

OJ urges Gambia to revisit Commonwealth withdrawal

The opposition leader criticised the President Jammeh-led government for not giving clear reasons of its shock withdrawal from the body usually referred to as “the Family of Nations”.

Gambian opposition leader Ousainou Darboe returns without incident

Accuses Gambia Government of using his party as a "propaganda tool"

Mr Darboe denies running a political party on tribal lines as alleged by Gambia Government (Photo/DailyNews)

The Gambia: 'Enemies' Britain, US lying against government’

The tiny West African nation of 1.7 million has over the years grabbed international headlines over the state of human rights in the country; however, the President Yahya Jammeh-led government said (The) Gambia's human rights record since 1994 is “better than that of the United Kingdom and the United States put together”
(AP Photo/Andrew Burton,Pool)

Criminal charges against Gambian musician for radio vandalism withdrawn

On September 2, singer Nova, a Ghetto Boy Music Producer, was invited to the studios of Star FM upon his request to be granted airtime to clear his image which he claimed had been tarnished by the radio station over reports he had “impregnated three women living on the same compound” (Photo/Reverbnation)

Broadcast journalist held without charge in Gambia

Fatou Camara, host of the 'Fatou Show,' has been held by authorities since September 17. (Photo/Facebook)

The Gambia: BANK PHB Renamed Keystone Bank

The Bank had its licence seized in 2011 by the Central Bank of Nigeria for failing to meet a new capital requirement.

The Bank was among 10 banks that failed the CBN’s “stress test” conducted in June 2009, a manifestation that they would have struggled to withstand another financial crisis. (Photo Credit: MSJoof/TNBES/August2011)

Gambia pulls out of Commonwealth citing 'neo-colonialism'

The West African nation said it "will never be a party to any institution that represents an extension of colonialism".

The Gambian President identified “excessive greed”, “obsession with world domination”, and“homosexuality” as the three biggest threats to human existence - as he addresses the 68th United Nations General Assembly on Friday Sept. 27, 2013 at U.N. headquarters. (AP Photo/Andrew Burton,Pool)

Jammeh identifies three biggest threats to human existence

Gambian President Yahya Jammeh addresses the 68th United Nations General Assembly on Friday Sept. 27, 2013 at U.N. headquarters. (AP Photo/Andrew Burton,Pool) — AP

Britain warn its citizens against using Gambia ferry

Do not use Gambia ferry, United Kingdom tells British (Photo credit: Sinsistema)

President Jammeh notes progress and challenges of MDGs

Jammeh addresses 68th UNGA (Photo Credit: UN/Amanda Voisard)

Yahya Jammeh has noted both substantial progress and remaining challenges for Africa’s quest to meeting the Millennium Development Goals, MDGs, 2015 when he spoke on Friday at the UN General Assembly in New York.  

In reference to the 2013 MDG report on Africa’s performance, the President of The Gambia said the remaining challenges include the difficulty of translating economic growth into decent job opportunities, improving service delivery and minimizing income, gender and spatial inequalities.  

Civil strife and terrorism undermine human security

Jammeh, President of the Gambia, addresses the general debate of the sixty-eighth session of the General Assembly.

Friday 27 September 2013 United Nations, New York (Photo Credit: UN/Amanda Voisard)

Prolonged overvalued exchange rate would damage Gambia’s international competitiveness - IMF warns

The warning came at the back of several Gambia Government directives that downgraded foreign currency exchange rates, impose a moratorium on the shipment of the dollar, suspension of money operators, seizure of financial bureau licences, and arrests and detention of forex bureau staff – amid a continuous decline in value of the local currency, the Dalasi. (Photo Credit: Bloomberg)

UN Women Chief: Access to education for girls is vital to lift millions out of poverty

UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka and Nanette Braun, Chief of Communications and Advocacy, address press. Photo Credit: UN Women

The Gambia: IMF suggests further tax reforms to strengthen revenues

Also, IMF Board claims The Gambia made significant progress in the fight against poverty prior to the drought, however, it admitted that poverty is still widespread (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Criminals look for vulnerable sectors to launder their proceeds – Dr Shehu

GIABA DG Dr. Abdullahi Shehu says criminals are stepping-up their illicit actiities (Photo Credit: Modou S. Joof/2012)

Following the implementation of regional and national Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) measures with emphasis on financial institutions, criminals look for vulnerable sectors through which they could launder their proceeds, according to Dr. Abdullahi Shehu.

The Director General of the Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA) explain on Wednesday that one such vulnerable sector is the designated non-financial instititions, business professions (DNFBPs).

DNFBPs comprises of accountants, real estate agents, lawyers, notaries, and other independent legal profesionals, he said during a GIABA-organised training on the AML/CFT requirements for accountants in English-speaking West Africa from 11 to 12 September, 2013 in Banjul, The Gambia.

GIABA bring AML/CFT requirements to West African accountants in Banjul

Photo Credit: Modou S. Joof/2012

Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) requirements has been brought to the attention of accountants in English-speaking West Africa by GIABA.

The Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering in West Africa, GIABA, is holding a training on the AML/CFT requirements from 11 to 12 September, 2013 in Banjul, The Gambia.

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) revised standards place obligations on accounting professionals to adopt and implement AML/CFT measures, including risk assessment and application of the Risk-Based Approach to AML/CFT implementation, GIABA said.

Gambia: ‘Viable avenue for citizens to report human rights violations’

The tiny West African nation of The Gambia is often criticized for alleged human rights violations.

Sioux City Human Rights Commission (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The creation of a Human Rights Commission in The Gambia will provide a “viable avenue” for the citizenry to lodge their complaints on human rights and other violations, according to Claire Mckenzie.

The acting General Secretary, Commonwealth Secretariat, who was speaking last week at a validation of a document on the establishment of a National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in The Gambia, support the significance of an independent human rights institution.

Mckenzie said the proposed NHRC can help draft legislations that are passed through parliament to ensure they are in conformity with international human rights obligations ratified by The Gambia.

GIABA responds to low performance of financial sector in West Africa

The Intergovernmental Action Group against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Abiola Ekundayo highlight ‘obvious challenges’ in marine and aviation insurance

Mr Abiola Ekundayo (photo credit: Lamin Jahateh)

“Obvious challenges” in underwriting marine and aviation insurance in West Africa were Monday highlighted by Abiola Ekundayo, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of West Africa Reinsurance Corporation (WAICA Re).

Mr Ekundayo was speaking in Banjul, The Gambia at the start of a weeklong (August 26-29) international training course on “advance marine and aviation insurance” for insurers from various companies in West Africa.

Sierra Leone: Youths vow to fight against money laundering

Cross section of participants at the GIABA Open House Forum in Freetown, Sierra Leone (Photo Credit: GIABA)

Youths in Sierra Leone have pledged their commitment to the fight against money laundering and financing of terrorism, corruption, and transnational organised crimes, according to GIABA, an inter-governmental agency fighting against the same crimes in West Africa.

It pledge followed an Open House Forum for Youths in that country on the theme “Mobilising   the Youths against Organized Crimes” facilitated by the Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA).

The July 25 forum, attended by 160 young people from tertiary institutions, youth coalition groups and the media in Sierra Leone, culminated in a communiqué in which the youths resolved “to assiduously become advocates of a corrupt-free society”.

200 Drug Testing Kits For Gambia’s Drug Law Enforcement Agency

UK High Commissioner David Morley handing over the drug testing kits to Director General of NDEA Samba Gajaja (Photo Credit: James Philips)

David Morley, the British High Commissioner to The Gambia, on Wednesday presided over a donation of 200 drug testing kits to The Gambia National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDEA.

The kits, handed over to the NDEA at its headquarters at Pipeline, are intended to help the agency with its drug detection work across the country.   

The UK High Commission also donated a specialised incinerator to the NDEA in March 2013 to help them safely destroy seized drugs within The Gambia. 

Senegalese authorities ‘threaten’ to expel Gambian journalist Abubacarr Saidykhan

 Abubacarr Saidykhan/Photo:Facebook

Senegalese authorities have “threatened” to expel Gambian freelance journalist, Abubacarr Saidykhan on Monday, if he continue to be opposed to the Gambian regime, according to reports.

Saidykhan has been living in the Senegalese capital Dakar in self-imposed exile since fleeing The Gambia in October 2012 over reported “death threats” leveled against him by unidentified men believed to be state security agents.

Prior to his flight, freelance journalist Saidykhan was arrested and detained in September 2012 by the Banjul Bureau of the International Police Agency, INTERPOL, after he and a colleague journalist, Baboucarr Ceesay, had applied for a police permit to peacefully demonstrate against President Yahya Jammeh’s execution of nine death row inmates by firing squad.

Reports indicated that two senior officials of the President Macky Sall-led Government met Saidykhan recently over the fate of his asylum application – and told him “Senegal will not allow any Gambian fugitive in Senegal to continue to be actively involved in opposition to the authorities in The Gambia”.

Gambian politician, Waa Juwara, is ‘keeping it cool’

Waa Juwara was arrested on several occasions and tortured (Photo Slide: Kibaaro News)

The leader of the opposition National Democratic Action Movement (NDAM), Mr Waa Juwara is no longer sure if he is an opposition. 

He has worked with the Jammeh-led Government as an opposition since 2009 when he became governor of Lower River Region and later Minister of Local Government and Lands.

On the eve of President Jammeh’s 19^th Anniversary of the July 22 Coup, Juwara told The Voice: “We will be able to keep it cool and be able to contribute in one way or the other to make sure that Gambia is still intact.”

“That is why we talk about development, you cannot talk about development in actual fact when there is no peace and stability which we have enjoyed for a good measure,” he said on Sunday, July 21. 

Mustapha Kebbeh Is New Gambia Football Federation President

On Wednesday, July 31, GFF delegates decided against electing Banker Modou Moussa to lead the Federation (Photo Credit: Sang Mendy)

GFF Election: Football Clubs Withdraw Kinteh’s Candidacy

The NC banned former FA President Seedy Kinteh (Pic) and Vice President Adama Halla Samba from running for elected office following allegations of “financial misuse” and “maladministration”.