Threats loom against AP and Jollof News' Gambia reporter

IPI tells Gambian Police to bring perpetrators to justice

Naomi Hunt, Press Freedom Adviser for Africa & the Middle East

Gambian journalist Abdoulie John has received threats from unnamed callers over the past few weeks, he told IPI in a phone interview today. John is a correspondent for the Associated Press news agency and an editor of online news outlet Jollof News. He told IPI he fears the threats are coming from Gambian security operatives.

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The World Cup: Does Africa need foreign coaches?

By D. A. Jawo, Banjul, The Gambia

If there is any big lesson that Africa must have no doubt learnt in the on-going World Cup, it is the undeniable fact that engaging foreign coaches is a sheer waste of money as it brought no benefits for any of the participating African teams.

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G8/G20 Summit Preview

The flowering of The African Century

Kofi Akosah-Sarpong, in Ottawa, previews the G8 and G20 summits that are to take place in the Canadian cities of Huntsville and Toronto, and justifies that they will reflect the fact that Africa is a development partner, which is rising, and not a development problem, as has been the case some years ago

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The Gambia's drug trafficking dilemma

By Ndubuisi Ugah-Lagos

Before now, Guinea-Bissau was largely regarded as a nation wrecked by poverty, coups and political unrest. However, latest development reveal that the nation has become the cynosure of all eyes, courtesy of reports that two of its senior military officers were accused by the US of drug trafficking, thus raising concern over the vulnerability of African nations as exit points for Latin American cocaine traffickers to get their wares into Europe, writes Ndubuisi Ugah with agency reports..

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Breaking News

President Jammeh weds 20-year Alima Sallah

-- Antouman Saho released from Mile II Prisons

By Ebrima G. Sankareh, Editor-In-Chief

Unimpeachable sources nestled within the corridors of state power have confirmed to The Gambia Echo that Gambia's President, Yaya Jammeh, in accordance with Islamic tenets wedded Miss Alima Sallah last night. Alima Sallah, 20, is the daughter of Alhagie O G Sallah, career civil servant and Gambia's current Ambassador to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Beautician, Zahra Miknas.

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Breaking News

For record two years, no African president wins Mo Ibrahim Prize

The Prize Committee met yesterday to discuss the award of the 2010 Mo Ibrahim Prize. Following its deliberations, the Prize Committee informed the Board of the Foundation that it had not selected a winner. Last year the Prize Committee announced that it had considered some credible candidates, but after in depth review could not select a winner. This year the Prize Committee told the Board that there had been no new candidates or new developments and that therefore no selection of a winner had been made.

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Astounding, mind-numbing international drug bust puts Gambia on spotlight

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By Mathew K Jallow, Associate Editor

The humidity and the sweltering heat of early June was enough to numb one’s brain. But, above the skies of Kombo Brikama, agile swallows and clumsy vultures flew ceaselessly back and forth, and in anticipatory enthusiasm, circled overhead in search of prey below. And in the distance, the city of Brikama, the administrative capital of Kombo Brikama, the San Francisco of The Gambia...

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Echo Analysis

The Gambia- Where We Want to Be

(Part II)

By Hamadi Maatong, Gambian Affairs Contributor

Why would the current government want to debase Gambian legal experts by consistently appointing mercenary judges and “cow-tower” Gambian judges, leaving the great young Gambian legal minds out? We all do have our own strong opinions on this matter but I am a firm believer in not loading our legal system with Nigerian “judges”. Recruit judges from Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and the Pacific Rim region and we could learn and gain a lot from their services. From my perspective, hiring Nigerian judges

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Echo Analysis

The Gambia- Where We Want to Be

 By Hamadi Maatong, Gambian Affairs Contributor

The Gambia has for long been a country basking in the limelight of a mature democracy gained from years of encouraging a thriving multi-party democracy and a full fledged democratic process on the ground from the post independence era up until the mid-eighties when the democratic process and the rule of law was trumped by poor governance, ineptitude and partisan politics. I refer back to the eighties because that was clearly when simple men and women from humble rural and Banjul beginnings started getting fat headed, walking around town with chips

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Breaking News

President Jammeh sacks Energy Minister, Sira Wally Ndow, appoints Dr. Tangara Foreign Minister  

By Ebrima G. Sankareh, Editor-In-Chief

Unassailable sources nestled within the corridors of power in Banjul; say Gambian dictator, Yahya Jammeh, has sacked his Energy Minister, Mrs. Sira Wally Ndow-Njie, late this afternoon. According to our most competent sources, she is replaced by Mr. Ousman Jammeh who until this afternoon was Foreign Minister of the drug-ridden, poverty-stricken West African mini-state where only today, cocaine worth $1bn was seized by Gambian and British drug enforcement agents.  

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Bombshell

Cocaine worth $1bn seized in The Gambia

At least two tonnes of cocaine with a street value of some $1bn has been seized in The Gambia, bound for Europe. In addition to the huge haul of drugs, the Gambian authorities have arrested a dozen suspected traffickers, and seized large quantities of cash and arms.

  West Africa has become a major transit hub for drugs to Europe

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Atlanta Gambians Bring Special Father’s Day Picnic

Event highlights prestigious “Father of The Year Award”

Now that the 2010 Mother’s Day Weekend activities have passed and seen by many as an obvious success held on behalf of the Gambian women, GFAA-Gambia Families Association is once again poised to present to the Atlanta community its second biggest summer program, The Father’s Day Picnic.

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Captain M. K. Sonko breaks silence, takes Captain Sabally to task

Captain Momodou K. Sonko**, the soldier who announced the July coup on Radio1 FM on that fateful Friday, July 22, 1994, has been living in the United States for the past 15 years following his incarceration by the Armed Forces Provisional Ruling Council-AFPRC, the junta that overthrew the democratically elected government of Sir Dawda K. Jawara and seized power. Today, the former military officer is a student in pursuit of a doctoral

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New and safer ways to access The Gambia Echo in Gambia

Are you still having difficulty accessing The Gambia Echo in The Gambia? The simplest and safest way to access The Gambia Echo in The Gambia without leaving footprints is now available to us courtesy of a patriotic Gambian who sent us this vital link. Try: www.hidemyass.com . Type: www.thegambiaecho.com on the search bar immediately above "popular sites" and then click the "Hide My Ass! botton . You are now good to go.

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Editorial

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Breaking News

How to access The Gambia Echo in Gambia

By Ebrima G. Sankareh, Editor-In-Chief

Ever since the tyrannical regime of President Yahya Jammeh blocked our signals from The Gambia effectively denying access to our esteemed readership, good people have been working around the clock to resolve this dastardly act. Below is an email we just received from one such persons and we hope this will fix the anomaly.

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Breaking News

State Dept. transfers Tashawna S. Bethea, Banjul’s Political & Economic Officer

By Ebrima G. Sankareh, Editor-In-Chief

Barely three days after being conferred with Gambia’s prestigious insignia, “Officer of the Republic of The Gambia- ORG (Honorary”), by Gambian dictator, Yahya Jammeh, at an elaborate ceremony at his native Kanilai, The Gambia Echo can reveal, that Ms. Tashawna S. Bethea, Political & Economic Officer at the US Embassy in Banjul, has been transferred to Washington, DC, with immediate effect. She is replaced by a new Political and Economic Officer, Zachery Bailey, who assumes office immediately.

Tashawna Bethea (middle) posing with students during the International Education Week

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From Ghana to Ethiopia, the story was often the same. Africans were returning from abroad

A BBC Article

Africa may still be suffering from a chronic brain drain but some of the continent's elite are turning their backs on the West and taking their talents back home according to film-maker Andy Jones.

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