95 Security Personnel Transferred to the Army by Jammeh Set to Return to Sister Forces

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) has ordered The Gambia Armed Forces (GAF) to redeploy 95 soldiers and officers to sister forces who are struggling with capacity gap following the government’s decision to place a moratorium on recruitment, army spokesperson Major Lamin Sanyang told The Chronicle.

The mass redeployment is in reaction to a cabinet decision on the request made by the Ministry of Interior on behalf of the various departments including the police force, immigration department, fire and rescue services and drug law enforcement agency.

“MOD wrote to us to redeploy them back to the police and other departments. We have started the process. We called them on Monday to brief them about this development. Among them are both officers and soldiers. The total is 95, and 86 among them are police officers,” Major Sanyang said.

According to him, these officers moved to the army through departmental transfer based on the directive of former president, Yahya Jammeh.

“After the new dispensation came, there has been a moratorium on recruitment for GAF and the Interior which has affected some sister forces in terms of human resources capacity gap. As a result of that, they requested through the cabinet for the Ministry of Defence to get their people back.”

President Adama Barrow last year announced that the army would be downsized as part of security reforms. But according to Major Sanyang, the redeployment of security personnel back to their original forces was not meant to downsize the army.