Posted by The border town of Amdalai was recently the scene of an encounter between Edrissa Babou, a military deserter, and Gambia’s State Intelligence Services (SIS). Mr. Babou, a native of Mbolet Ba village in the North Bank Region of The Gambia, was apparently on a visit to his village from Senegal when he attracted the attention of the Intelligence agents.
A Lance Corporal prior to his desertion of the Gambia National Army (GNA) in 2014, Babou recollected to investigators that he fled The Gambia after he was accused of stealing a cow from the Banjulinding cattle farm of the former head of state, where he had been one of the guards in 2014.
According to Babou, he left the country on 14 September 2014, travelling through Amdalai to Dakar, from where he proceeded to Mali. He added that from Mali he also travelled to Niger, Ivory Coast then to Equatorial Guinea where he spent three months before finally returning to Dakar in December 2014. While in Dakar, he further told investigators, he has since been working as a security guard in a company called Cabinet Immobilier du Monde.Babou was afterwards handed over to the military authorities for further investigations.
This latest event comes on the back of recent efforts by SIS to effect certain changes, which are believed to have culminated in the improvement of border surveillance services.
Incidentally, the Gambia Armed Forces yesterday issued a statement exonerating Babou from any association with the notorious Junglers, an alleged group of thugs widely suspected of torture and murders at the behest of Yahya Jammeh. The statement further affirmed that Babou is on a visit to his family.