Gambia Holds First Anti-FGM Prosecution Since Ban Was Upheld Last Year

            In 2023, the first conviction and sentencing against FGM practice were recorded

Pres. Barrow: Dramatic Rise in Coronavirus Cases and Deaths Sad

Red Cross Covid-19 Burial Team heads out on daily routine of burying corpses. Photo taken from Eye Africa TV

Gambia Prepares 1000 Hospital Beds for Projected Rise in Coronavirus Cases

The Gambia government extended its state of emergency regulations by a month and half on April 3 - asking people to stay at home without giving them incentives - so it's  business as usual for daily wage earners at the Serekunda market (pictured) Photo Credit: @JoofMS | TNBES | April 7, 2020

Gambia is 120th Happiest Country Globally - Report

Rights groups protest against impunity, perceived corruption in government and  environmental damage in Gambia in June 2018 (Photo taken from Freedom Newspaper)

Gambia, Senegal Implement Agreement to Strengthen Bilateral Interests

Sall and Barrow speaking to the press in Banjul,
Tuesday (photo credit: Omar Wally)

The Gambia and Senegal have concluded the first talks to strengthen what both countries say are “bilateral interests” via the newly formed Presidential Council.

The meeting, held from March 11-13, 2018 in Banjul, focused on bilateral issues of common interest.

It was preceded by talks between the Gambian President Adama Barrow and his Senegalese counterpart Macky Sall. 

The Presidential Council (of experts and ministers) was set up by a joint communique between the two countries in March 2017 at the visit of the Gambian president to Senegal.

It would meet every six months, alternatively, in The Gambia and Senegal, under the joint chairmanship of the two heads of state.

The meeting, attended by officials of the two governments, examined all issues of bilateral interest.

Officials of the two countries said the biannual meeting would provide guidance to the two governments for deepening cooperation.

Restrictions on industrial fishing

Decisions reached by the Council are to be implemented by the Senegalo-Gambian Permanent Committee, which is co-chaired by the Vice-President of The Gambia and the Prime Minister of Senegal. 

The Westfield Clinic: Japan-funded medical equipment already making impact

Dr. Ayo Palmer, medical director Westfield Clinic shows pieces of medical equipment to Mr. Hideya Sato, first secretary Embassy of Japan in Senegal during a tour of equipment (Photo Credit: MSJoof/TNBES/Oct. 2016

Deadlier Than Ebola

Survey finds HIV/AIDS, diarrhoe and malaria kill more Africans than the Ebola virus

Latest World Bank (WB) figures show almost 1.2 million Africans died as a result of HIV/AIDS in 2012, according to a new survey. A team from Médecins Sans Frontières arrived in Guinea at the beginning of the Ebola outbreak (Photo: Kjell Gunnar Beraas/MSF)

A nurse and journalist who was truly fearless in confronting authority in both Church and State

Mrs Bijou Edith Ernestine Bidwell Nee Peters 1927 – 2014

Bijou Peters (Photo credit: Gamcotrap)

Bijou Edith Ernestine Bidwell Nee Peters was the eldest daughter of the late Mr Lenrie Peters and Mrs Kezia (Broderick) Peters of Bathurst (now Banjul), The Gambia. 

She was born on the 29^th of March 1927 in Freetown, Sierra Leone and educated in her school days at St. Mary’s Anglican Primary School and Methodist Girls High School, under the educationist Mrs Norah Senior, MBE and missionary from Somerset, UK. She was Head Girl and passed the senior Cambridge School Certificate Exam.

She died on February 12, 2014 at 86 years of age. Prayers where held at St. Paul’s Parish Church, Fajara and buried at the Banjul Cemetery on Monday, March 3, 2014.

Catholic Church 'Prevents Opening' of Clitoral Repair Hospital

“The goal is to help as many victims as possible have this surgery, which will also help discourage the barbaric practice of FGM,” Nadine Gary said.  “When its effects can be surgically reversed for free, what would be the point?” - Photo Credit: Clitoraid

First Clitoral Repair Hospital for FGM Victims to Open Friday

“The goal is to help as many victims as possible have this surgery, which will also help discourage the barbaric practice of FGM,” Nadine Gary said.  “When its effects can be surgically reversed for free, what would be the point?” - Photo Credit: Clitoraid

The world’s first clitoral repair hospital for victims of female genital mutilation (FGM), located in Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso, will open on March 7, according to the U.S.-based nonprofit organization, Clitoraid. 
 
It said Chantal Compaore, the First Lady of Burkina Faso, will preside at the ceremony. The hospital was built with donated funds and through the efforts of worldwide volunteers.

“Having Chantal Compaore’s support and presence on March 7 is such a wonderful way to celebrate this opening,” says Clitoraid Communications Director Nadine Gary. “She has been a steadfast voice against the horrors of FGM, and we’re honored that she will be there.”

The Gambia: January 17 Is National Natural Medicines Day

Photo taken from The Point

President Yahya Jammeh has declared 17 January as National Natural Medicines Day in The Gambia.
 

On the eve of The Gambia’s 49^th independence anniversary of February 18, Jammeh, who is also an herbal doctor, said “this Day will be set aside to appreciate, celebrate and also embrace Gambia’s indigenous ways of medical treatment.” 

The Gambian leader said the Day will be celebrated “for the glories of our rich past”.

However, he noted that it should be a moment for further reflection, though and research for the improvement of indigenous knowledge of natural remedies for their adaptation in a dynamic and increasingly materialistic commercial world. 

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)

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

Seriously in Need of Help

Modou Lamin Touray, a 6 year-old boy and a resident of Fajikunda, is in urgent need of assistance to go for overseas treatment.

According to a medical report issued by The Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital, the youngster was presented at the paediatric outpatient department with a one year history of frequent falls, unsteady gait or walking, vomiting, headache, increasing head size, poor vision and inability to control his neck.

The report added: “However there were no reported seizures in the past. And he was born at term and cried well at birth”.

The report, dated 24 June 2013, also indicated the boy’s inability to have neck control and sustained ankle clonuses bilaterally.

‘Dropping of the knife is the beginning of change’

Ten-year jail term planned for female circumcisers in Gambia. In this photo, ex-circumcisers publicly declare dropping of the knife (Photo Credit: www.gamcotrap.gm)

Gambia: Agency joins massive worldwide fight to end violence against women

A procession against Female Genital Mutilation February 6, 2012 during Zero Tolerance to FGM celebrations (Photo credit: The Daily News)

HIV/AIDS not a death sentence

Gambia, Turkey extent cooperation beyond security

 ALSO IN THIS NEWS-ROUNDUP...

• National assembly members should be honest 
•  NAMs agree to fill government budget gaps
• Gambian children screened for cardiac and heart diseases 

Gambia, Turkey extent cooperation beyond security

The governments of the Gambian and Turkish on Monday agree to extend their long term cooperation beyond defence and security.

Gambia’s ministry of tourism and culture and the Turkish diplomatic mission to Gambia signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) designed to create an avenue for cooperation in the field of tourism.

Unnecessary Deaths

Royal Victoria Teaching Hospital - Banjul

Gambia’s President Friday dismissed the Royal Victoria Teaching Hospital’s (RVTH) Chief Medical Director, Dr. Ahmed Secka and dissolved the Board of Directors of the Hospital.

An April 27 press statement from the Office of the President, accuses doctors and nurses of laissez faire attitude towards patients at the RVTH which has “resulted in unnecessary deaths and sufferings for many people.”

Campaign to end FGM intensifies

Picture: GAMCOTRAP

More in this roundup....

Lovers in ‘deadly’ fracas 

Campaign to end FGM intensifies

Gambia: Major increase in poverty and gender-based violence

 Gambia: Malaria remains a public health burden 

 Activist takes a dim view of Malawi’s human rights 

 CPJ condemns attacks on two newspaper offices in Nigeria

 Minister speaks on ‘great potential’ of intellectual property

African scientists horned on Pneumococcal surveillance