June 2021
IGP Jobe – Should we speak ill of the dead?
Rest in Peace, IGP Jobe! It is not every day that an Inspector General of Police (IGP) dies in office. When the death of Alagie Mamour Jobe, the IGP for three years (2018-2021) was announced, the shock and grief could make the president’s public relations team be forgiven for the yet another blunder in the State House media alerts that the ‘president was shockingly informed’ about it. On a more serious issue though, the sudden death of Mr Jobe is a great loss for the country, especially the Gambia Police Force (GPF). But it is not without controversy, putting the ancient taboo...
April 2021
‘Decoding’ COVID-19: Gambia’s success in tracking mutations of the virus
By December last year, The Gambia has uploaded 430 sequenced genomes of COVID-19 on the global database compiled by GISAID Initiative, ranking 6th in the world for percentage of positive samples sequenced, according to a Washington Post article. By the beginning of March 2021, the country had sequenced 1000 genomes or 20% of its positive samples, said Abdul Karim Sesay, a Genomics Lab Manager at Medical Research Council at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in the Gambia.
AstraZeneca vaccine: Gambian experience so far good
Despite high vaccine hesitancy among the population, Gambia's use of Astrazeneca vaccine has been so far good, with no fatality.
Profiting From Pandemic: Coronavirus Test Results For Sale In Gambia
Malagen goes undercover to reveal how some medical workers are accepting bribe in exchange for negative Covid-19 test results.
Yankuba Touray’s murder conviction raises hope for justice for Jammeh-era crimes
For the family of Ousman Koro Ceesay, justice was done on July 14 this year when the High Court in Banjul handed a former government minister the death sentence for his role in the murder of his colleague. The ruling brought a measure of closure to the mystery that for 26 years surrounded the death of the former Finance minister. Ousman Koro’s charred remains were found in his burnt car, few hours after he saw off then junta chairman, Yahya Jammeh, at the airport. Some members of the junta, including Touray, have long been reported to have been behind the assassination. With...
February 2021
Saikou Jammeh, former GPU Secretary General
To a lot of people, Saikou Jammeh is probably one of the finest Gambian journalists of his generation. A former Daily News editor, Mr Jammeh worked for various international news organisations and wrote critical and compelling articles opposing the Jammeh dictatorship. Unlike others, he never went into exile. For the past five years, he has been at the helm at GPU, and credited for the many transformative institutional reforms that have made the Union a force to be reckoned with. Last month, Mr Jammeh caused a huge ripple in otherwise calm waters when he announced he was leaving the GPU...
January 2021
Investors Who Do Not Invest – How They Access State House, Land, Diplomatic Passport And Even Love
Investigations by Malagen have uncovered disturbing details about the activities, here and abroad, of these so-called foreign investors whose tracks bear significant hallmarks of an international investment fraud enterprise.
November 2020
Decline in catches as Gambia grapples with illegal fishing
The fisheries sector has also seen significantly dwindling earnings for fishermen and traders. “There is no fish in the waters…,” he said. “We used to catch up to 90 trays (a tray carries 50kg of fish) of sardinella a day and now we barely get 5 trays a day.” Touray owns a boat since 2009. “Our catches used to be good,” said Eliman Jammeh, a father of 4, who owns two boats operating in Gunjur— a coastal fishing community an hour drive from Banjul. Jammeh started going to sea in 1988. “On a good day before—say early 2000s— one can catch up to...