DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Senegal has recorded its first case of Ebola in an outbreak that is ravaging its West African neighbors, the Ministry of Health said Friday. The infected person is a young man from Guinea, Health Minister Awa Marie Coll Seck told reporters. The outbreak that has killed more than 1,500 people began last year in Guinea, which shares a border with Senegal. Since then, the disease has spread to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria. At least 3,000 people have contracted the virus. The arrival of the dreaded disease in Senegal, whose capital Dakar is a major…
Author: Gainako
The U.S State Department has issued a public notice announcing the increase of Consular Services effective September 12, 2014. In a Statement released to the press the announcement indicated that Consular Services will increase and the “fees for most immigrant Visas will change while fees for non-immigrant Visas will remain same. The increase in fees is a reflection of the true cost of providing the services the release added. However, it was not quite clear from the release which specific countries will experience the increase. It is to be noted that Visa application fees has dramatically increased in the last several years…
According to reliable sources, at the close of nominations on Wednesday afternoon for the elective post of president of the Gambia Football Federation, GFF, four people have been nominated for the GFF top post. The Point learned that the nominated candidates are Lamin Kaba Bajo Gambia’s former ambassador to Morocco, former GFF president Mustapha Kebbeh , former GFA president Seedy Kinteh and one Omar Danso of KMC Football zone. For one to be a candidate in the 20th September election, one must be nominated by a GFF club. Mr…
By Demba Baldeh Gambia’s political story in the last two decades is one that should no longer be a mystery to any conscious and well informed citizen. In every society it is the moral responsibility of its citizens to take the mantle of leadership and stand up to defend the sovereignty of the nation not only from external aggression but internal forces bend on destroying the basic fabrics of the society. When Yahya Jammeh accidentally found himself in power in 1994, citizens rallied around him, praised him, gave him the benefits of the doubt and some…
Over 100 African Migrants reportedly drown over the coast of Libya near the capital Tripoli while trying to reach Europe according to Libyan Coast Guards. The sad incident occurred on Friday August 23rd, 2014. The migrants who were found off the shores of al-Qarbouli, about 50 kilometers east of Tripoli, were traveling in a boat, which was carrying over 250 migrants. The Libyan coast guards embarked on a rescue mission and were able to rescue 16 people. Small children were reportedly among those who drowned. The migrants who are mostly African…
(Johannesburg, August 25, 2014) – African countries should reject immunity for sitting leaders for grave crimes before the African Court for Justice and Human Rights, 141 organizations said today in a declaration in advance of an African Union meeting in Nairobi. The organizations include both African groups and international groups and have a presence in 40 African countries. The African Union (AU) Office of the Legal Counsel is convening a meeting in Nairobi on August 25 and 26, 2014, with government officials of AU member countries in East Africa to promote ratification of AU…
Part 2 of 3 By Modou Nyang In the contours of democratic political change in the Gambia the climax in the collaboration between home and diaspora forces is represented in the ushering of NADD into the country’s political lexicography. And now any subsequent partnership must aim at improving upon that milestone of political architecture if it is to help deliver the change that still eludes us in this past two decades. The Gambia is not at a political standstill and its narrative cannot be etched anew at the back of historical perspectives. What is to follow if it…
Under heavy weight of crown the king lost his head Sarjo Bayang warns Gambians Little known junior army ranker who paved his way to power by force of arms in July 1994 is now striving to be crowned king of Gambia in West Africa; a strip of land divided by a river some people say is where the country’s name came from. After 20 years forced ruled with an iron fist worst of dictatorship marred by rampant corruption, economic decay, financial meltdown, state sponsored secret killings, disappearance without trace, and vast array of harmful encounters meted out to a…
Defeating Dictators: Fighting Tyranny in Africa and Around the World. BY GEORGE B. N. AYITTEY. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011. Pp.vi-282. $ 28, hardcover (978-0-23010859-2). George Ayittey remains an important intellectual force of our time, in part, because of his criticism of Africa’s political and intellectual elite. He has for several decades exposed both economic and political excesses of Africa’s most notorious- Mobutu in Zaire, Abacha in Nigeria, Rawlings in Ghana, and Jammeh in The Gambia, to name a few. Identifying Africa’s numerous leadership failures would not be remarkable if Ayittey had stopped at that. Instead, he offers thoughtful policy options…
BY: Ousainou Mbenga “We must all engage ourselves in the struggle for the common good; there are none with clean hands, no innocents, no spectators. We all dirty our hands in the mind of our minds. Every spectator is a coward or a traitor”. Frantz Fanon. STEP 1: Cultivate a habit of analysis: think, question, criticize and be self – critical. In my view, tyrants don’t fall from the skies, sent by “God” to test our level of tolerance for oppression and brutality – “Nattu” as explained in wollof. “God” has nothing to do with this. Our…