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The EU fortifies technical backing to help Gambia in facing the ramifications of the COVID-19 pandemics
The European Union (EU) is fortifying its Technical boost to The Gambia, with an additional financial support of 550,000 Euro approximately 30 million Dalasi.
This is another step in helping the Government’s efforts to deal with the Covid-19 crisis, and to address the main democratic changeover and confrontation ahead in 2020-2021
This supplement the donation of 9 million Euro (around 500 million dalasi)of Budget to assist and help the country to implement its preventionary measures to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This additional assistance is another contribution by Team Europe.in addressing the socio-economic consequences of the covid-19 in The Gambia. At the same time it reflects the European Union constant attachment to democratic transition. 2020 and 2021 will be decisive years for The Gambia. The EU will be there and stand firm in its support,” says Ambassador Attila LAJOS, the EU Head of Delegation in The Gambia.
Source___Standard News
Gambia: The man who fired gun at Kalagi checkpoint found
The Gambia Armed Forces yesterday confirmed the taken in to custody of the man who fired a gun to frighten drug law enforcement officers at the Kalagi checkpoint last week.
According to army spokesman Major Lamin Sanyang, the man has been identified as a soldier and Lance Corporal Nuha Conteh of the State Guard unit.
He said the soldier is being held in custody by the military police who are still finding necessary clues about the matter.
As understood by Standard, the soldier, in his hurry to escape, unintentionally left some clues of his identity in the bags which led investigators to him as he reported for duty on Monday.
Source__Standard Newspaper
Gambia: Gambia Moral Congress executive member bow out, joins National People’s Party
Momodou Sidideh, an executive member of the Gambia Moral Congress, and a esteemed prominent member of the Serekunda West community has bow out from the party to join the National People’s Party of President Barrow.
Sidibeh, who amalgamated the GMC in April 2017, first hold on to the powerful and vital position of administrative secretary well before becoming an executive member responsible for constitutional matters and discipline at a succeeding party congress.
Recording his resignation to The Standard yesterday, Mr Sidibeh said: “I supported the GMC at the invitation of its leader Mai Fatty and also because it was part of the coalition. Now that Mr Fatty has left the government effective implying they are no longer part of the coalition, I feel that I have to leave.”
“Also, I am impressed with the achievement recorded by President Barrow in the last three years,” Sidibeh said. He draw the inference that he has made his position known to the GMC leader Mai Fatty.
Source___Standard Newspaper
Gambia: Gigantic Covid-19 tests in Bakau amidst new Record cases
A gigantic Covid-19 prompt testing has begun in Bakau yesterday as the number of new cases in the country escalated rapidly.
Abundance of frontline health workers tag along by security personnel were in the town to voluntarily screen and test inhabitants who may have come into contact with the new recorded cases for symptoms of Covid-19.
The development comes as the toll of infected cases continues to grow with five new cases.
As said by Haruna Jallow from the National Public Health Laboratories, there is a plain reflection of local contraction as a result of which mass voluntary testing to track down affected people as quickly as possible has become urgent.
“This is a community fight because the only efficacy in your testing is as equal as if everybody else has tested. Any person who fails to do the test is putting the community at risk. The norm should be mass testing as Bakau is a flash point. There must be mandatory testing to know the status of the community to be able to deal with the virus,” Gomez urged.
Modou Ceesay, another volunteer decried that most Gambians are being very complacent to understand the deadliness of the coronavirus pandemic.
“I don’t know what is wrong with us as Gambians. People still believe Covid-19 is a ploy of politics by government to get money from the international community. Covid-19 is real and it is killing people all over the world; let us come out and get tested,” he advised.
Source___Standard News
The Gambia trade union leader hankers gov’t to assess salary
Kebba Masanneh Ceesay, the chairman of the Gambia Trade Union has used his 2020 May Day speech to hanker the government to assess national wages/salaries and create jobs for the young people.
“We want to seize this occasion as always to call on government to conduct a thorough national wage/salary review and work hard to create avenues of job opportunities for the youth and women,” he disclosed on a statement shared with The Standard.
The unionist has also ask the government to approve the ILO convention on minimum wage, endorse convention 190 gender base violence and harassment in the field of work, rebuild a national social dialogue forum for efficient checking by government and with social partners in all parts of national development.
Ceesay also second-hand his speech to pay eulogy to the late Union leaders such as Francis Small, the founder of The Gambia Labour Union, Babou Kebbeh, MM Ceesay and ME Jallow.
Nevertheless, he said this year’s May Day will not be celebrated like before due to the Covid-19 pandemic regulations put forward by government.
“Finally, we ask all and sundry to respect the Public Emergency Order and abide by the WHO guidelines,” he said.
Credit____Standard News
‘Soldier’ trigger shot to frightens drug law officers
A man, who single out himself as a soldier triggered his gun yesterday at Kalagi check point in order to stop a drug law enforcement officer from checking him for suspicion of cannabis. He was able to escape, leaving his bag and other belongings.
Ousman Saidybah, public relation officer of Drug Law Enforcement Agency (DLEAG) disclosed that the occurrence happened on Tuesday at 8 in the evening when operatives of DLEAG and Gambia Police Force breaked a commercial vehicle for usual check at Kalagi
He stated that during the search, they found a container in the said vehicle and the officer asked about the owner of the container and communicated their intention to search it. “A male subject who identified himself as a soldier claimed to be the owner of the container and refused all attempt to search the container. The officer sought help from the police officers on duty to take the passenger and the suspected container to the charge office. Upon arrival at the charge office, the said passenger took out a pistol, fired a shot up in the air scaring the officers before escaping. Later, a search was conducted but he could not be traced.”
According to PRO Saidybah, the suspected container was cgecked and three big bundles of suspicion cannabis were found in it. Similarly, officers found one big bundle of suspected cannabis in his green traveling bag.
“The driver also revealed that the said individual identified himself to him as a military officer when he boarded the vehicle in Brikama heading to the province,”he explained.
He said investigators are examining into the matter and will work with the military command to bring forward facts encompassing this matter.
PRO Saidybah called on the public to stay watchful and report suspicion drugs and criminal activities to law enforcement officers.
Source___Standard News
Staff Distrust Banjul Breweries wants to move the company to Senegal
Staff at the Banjul stated their motives to relocate to Senegal saying that. “The Covid-19 outbreak are both used by the management as smoke screen. The real motive is, and has always been to relocate the factory to Senegal and use The Gambia as just a sales depot,” a spokesman of the staff said.
The staff noted that such a move will only benefit the company as it will save millions of taxes paid annually to the Gambia government as well as operation costs on both human and capital investments.
“They have already conducted a survey to see the possibilities of this hidden initiative. They want to use the factory in Senegal and change this brewery into a subsidiary to be managed by few employees. The Gambia government must not allow this plan to go ahead, because it will only trigger dire economic distress on the lives of the people and the state in terms of taxes.”
As said by the staff, the company is financially stable to sustain its operations in the country.
In an internal memo issued by the management and seen by the Standard, it stated the factory would need an investment of €2 million to sustain current operations and that after several economic assessments, cash required for necessary capital investment is “totally disproportionate to the envisaged profitability of the business”.
It further states that “most of the staff will be made redundant from May 1 and they will be compensated according to the labour laws” of The Gambia.
When The Standard visited the company premises for the management’s reaction to the claims, the security officers at the gate would not allow access, saying they are told not to allow journalists into the premises
Source__Standard News
Australian PM says no evidence coronavirus originated in China laboratory, urges inquiry
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who has irritated Beijing by cross-questioning for a global investigation into the coronavirus outbreak, said he had no proof to propose the disease emanated in a laboratory in the Chinese city of Wuhan.
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday he was sure the coronavirus may have emanated in a Chinese virology lab, but downturn to describe the proof he said he had seen.
Morrison said on Friday that Australia had no clue to support that theory, and said the uncertainty supported his push for an inquiry to understand how the pandemic started and then spread rapidly around the world.
“What we have before us doesn’t suggest that that is the likely source,” Morrison told a news conference in Canberra when asked about Trump’s comments.
“There’s nothing we have that would indicate that was the likely source, though you can’t rule anything out in these environments,” he said.
“We know it started in China, we know it started in Wuhan, the most likely scenario that has been canvassed relates to wildlife wet markets, but that’s a matter that would have to be thoroughly assessed.”
The Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), based in the city where the disease was first spotted, has refused suggestions the coronavirus came from its laboratory.
Most scientists now say the virus emanated in wildlife, with bats and pangolins identified as possible host species.
Relations between Australia and China have been tension since the government began canvassing support in mid-April for an international inquiry into the pandemic.
Source___World News
President Barrow pledges to rebuild the Basse market to international standard
Basse Market to be rebuilt to international standard – President Barrow pledges
State House, Banjul, February 27, 2020 – His Excellency President Adama Barrow on Thursday pledged to rebuild Basse market into a first class one with international standards. He also made a personal contribution of two million Dalasis towards the emergency fund created by URR authorities to the emergency cause.
The President said the inferno saddened him personally; his government, the entire country and the sub region as a whole. He said from the list of victims, the market truly depicts a sub-regional one, not just a Basse market. Its impacts are far reaching beyond just the vendors and commercial community who in fact, bear the brunt of the loss.
“We will urgently set up an inquiry to probe into the incident and come up with facts that will guide our intervention in rebuilding a market of international standard for Basse. My government will do all it can to build a first class market here,” President Barrow said.
He called on the public to desist from politicising the fire incident, adding that it should be treated as a national disaster, and with patriotism. “All should dip into their pockets, especially philanthropists, to raise funds to support this cause,” he maintained.
The Gambian leader noted that the emergency intervention by the Senegalese fire service from across the border also indicates a deeper sense of brotherhood between the two countries and the need for peaceful co-existence. He appealed to Gambians, the international community and development partners to help with reconstruction.
Governor of the region, Fanta BS Manneh, praised the gallantry of the fire fighters from the region, Bansang and the neighbouring border town of Vellingara, who came as reinforcement. She thanked the military, police and Chinese construction workers on the ground, who worked together to contain the fire.
It was reported that the incident began by 7pmand lasted all night, while residents were engaged in supporting firefighters in whatever form they could.
A representative of the market fire victims, Aja Bintou Banta Camara said the victims received the fire in good faith and took solace in the visit by the President. She appreciated that the President earlier dispatched the Vice President to extend solidarity and conduct a preliminary assessment of the extent of the disaster.
On behalf of the victims, she urged for urgent government intervention to rebuild the market, as the market is the source of livelihood for thousands who directly depend on it.
Similar urgent appeal was made by a Mauritanian victim. Vendors of the inferno include nationals from Senegal, Mali, Guinea, Mauritania, Sierra Leone, and Nigeria among others, representing the diversity of ECOWAS nationals doing business in Basse.
According to the Alkalo of Basse, Honourable Sellu Bah, the devastating impact would have included loss of human lives had the fire started during daytime.
Vice President Isatou Touray’s house vandalized by burglars
The home of Gambia’s Vice President Isatou Touray, has been vandalized by unknown burglars, Freedom Newspaper can report. The house is located in Kaur Touray-Kunda, in the Upper River Region of The Gambia. It was burglarized on Wednesday night.
Doors, windows and other valuables were destroyed. Stones were on found in the destroyed property. The people, who vandalized the VP’s home used stones to destroy the property. The sling fans were also damaged.
The house was well decorated. The nice and expensive sofas were spared. The attackers turned thieves, never steal the expensive household items in the building. According to sources, the attackers stole window curtains and a sound system deck from Mrs. Touray’s home. The items were stolen during what the police called an incident that looks like an attack against the home of the Vice President.
The incident was reported to the Kaur police station on Thursday by one Sako Jobe. The police later visited the scene, where they found what they called “a wanton destruction to property.”
The police are investigating the matters.
It has been gathered that a United Democratic Party (UDP) caravan was on tour of the country, when the incident happened. The UDP delegation had spent a night in Kaur, before proceeding to Janjangbureh. It is not clear if the UDP touring caravan was in Kaur, when the incident occurred.
The UDP touring team started their tour in the Baddibus. They later proceeded to the Central River Region (CRR). Kaur was among their port of call during the tour.
Gambia’s intelligence said the matter is under thorough investigations. No arrest has been made yet. No one has claimed responsibility for the incident.
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