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By Sheriff Saidykhan 

ChildCare Gambia, a non-profit organisation aimed at confronting child abuse has warned against street begging of children in the country. 

ChildCare Gambia, joins the rest of the world marking International Street Children\

By Sheriff Saidykhan

Victim-Led Organisations in partnership with Civil Society Organisations of The Gambia, have frowned on the slow motion of justice, for victims of April 10/11 student demonstrations.

Marking the 23rd anniversary of the April 10th and 11th student demonstrations, the Victim-Led Organisations and its partners said in a statement. 

“For more than two decades now, Victims and their families continue to be ignored and sidelined by the government of The Gambia, making it extremely difficult to seek for justice. Until today victims of April 10th and 11th 2000 are still not given the due consideration they deserved,” the statement said.

April 10/11 2000, is a day set aside to remember students who were killed, tortured, maimed and rape during a peaceful demonstration under the leadership of former President Yayha Jammeh.

“This was the day that the former government under the leadership of Yahya Jammeh, ordered the unlawful shooting of students, who were merely protesting the brutality meted onto their colleagues by some of the security forces, at the time. Students were killed, arrested, detained, physically assaulted, raped and tortured in several different locations across the country,” the statement added.

By SHERIFF SAIDYKHAN 

Customers of the Guarantee Trust Bank (GTB), one of the commercial banks in the country have lamented their growing frustrations over the long ques and poor banking service at the various branches of the  bank.

An anonymous source said he stopped banking with GTBank, due to the poor service delivery. This he said, has compelled him to switched doing banking transactions with GT Bank. 

Anna Sambou, a customer of the bank highlighted the lack of customer friendly service, which she said is difficult to make banking transactions. 

“At times it is very difficult to make transactions there, because some of the tellers are not friendly. Sometimes they talk freely to customers,”  she argued.

Lamin F. Fatty, a regular customer of the bank queried on the slow motion of effective service.

He also complained about the long que of customers, especially during the beginning and the end of the month. 

“Banking with GT Bank is one of the boring things, because they have many customers with slow service delivery.  Normally, end of the month and the beginning of the month when salaries are paid people que for hours just to make sure that they get their money. But it\

 By Sheriff Saidykhan

The Gambian-U.S based criminologist has said that, there is need for a new paradigm shift of security operations in the country.

Modou Lamin Faye, a specialist on Law enforcement and national security matters said his initiative is poised to support the Police and The Gambia Armed Forces, with modern security tools and equipments.

In an interview with The Outpost Media Mr. Faye highlightedw the significance of the initiative, saying it will help ease the burden of security operations in the country. 

He further called the government of President Adama Barrow to support the initiative, in order to enhance the security sector of the country. 

He said his initiative has developed a “tactical playbook” to better prepare the security forces in their modus operandi during protests. 

“With a tactical playbook in place, the controversy or misunderstanding of the excessive use of force that occurs between the Police Intervention Unit (PIU) and the public during riots would be avoided. Holding an AK-47 is one thing but being able to mentally, emotionally, and psychologically prepared to eliminate a threat while under pressure without shooting innocent bystanders or other responding officers is another. This is why it’s important to develop a tactical playbook and have tactical teams at every security institution who would be trained every day to deal with uncommon situations like that,” he posited.

He added: “We purchase the following new items to put phase ONE in motion: 40 tactical vests, 40 tactical helmets and headphones, 70 tactical masks, 40 uniforms, 40 two-way radios, 40 tactical backpacks with water bladders, 40 flashlights, 40 body cameras for operation and evidence gathering, one night vision google, 40-tactical boots, 40-pistol holsters, 40- pistol magazine pouches, and 40 custom made police/Gambian flag patches. Our goal is to purchase 100 of each of the items mentioned above for phase one,” he concluded.