The national defense policy is currently being formulated by the ministry of defense and stakeholders as guidelines and framework for the operations of the Gambia Armed Forces.
The document seeks to provide a national policy guidelines and framework to military institutions.
The Gambia is undergoing a security sector reforms to restructure the security systems in the country and to build the capacity of the personnel.
The Chief of Defense Staff of the Gambia Armed Forces, General Yankuba Drammeh says the policy is needed “to bring about some meaningful changes of all structures in which the armed forces are not an exception.”
He said formulating the document will effectively enhance the promotion of security institutions and individual men and women in uniform.
“This is a combination of processes and today we gather to look into the integrity of what it’s constituted to create what we call the national defense policy, and then as an institution we would look at it and make our own extraction, what we would quantify as a military strategy,” said the army chief.
“This is key if we should take the armed force to another level because it would identify roles and functions of individuals and institutions and what are the expectations.”
The Defense Ministry is responsible for supervising and providing policy guidelines to the Armed Forces. Minister Sheikh Omar Faye says it’s necessary for a substantial debate on the approach toward important reforms that the Armed Forces have to conduct in years to come.
“In our reform processes, there are vexing issues that need to be thoroughly examined. We should establish a coherent chain of command that allows each commander to operate at their proper level, be it at strategic operational or tactical.
“We need to put in place appropriate structures that would reflect the actual size and capabilities of our military and ensure correlation with tables or organizations and equipment,” he said.
Faye says the desire of the government and the Gambian people is to have an armed force that is properly manned, trained and equipped to fulfill their constitutional mandate.
“This is what the defense policy must achieve if we are to maintain the trust and confidence of all Gambians,” he said.
The Gambia Armed Forces has been heavily faulted for its role in the excess human rights abuses against Gambians during the 22 years of dictatorship.
