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As part of the ongoing efforts to curb the spread of Covid-19 in The Gambia, the Honourable Minister of Defence Sheikh Omar Faye visited military barracks in the West Coast Region and the Kanifing Municipality on 15 April 2020. The barracks visited were 4 Infantry Battalion in Kanilai, 1Infantry Battalion in Yundum and Guards Battalion in Fajara. He equally visited the ECOMIG forces stationed in Kafenda in the West Coast Region. The purpose of the visit was to assess GAF’s level of preparedness in the fight against Covid-19. The visit also gave the Honourable Minister the opportunity to gain firsthand information on the operational challenges of the troops in the fight against the pandemic. The information obtained would be shared with the National Task Force constituted to fight against Covid-19, of which the Honourable Minister is a member.
In a brief interaction with the troops, the Honourable Minister urged troops to strike a balance between maintaining their operational readiness and implementing the necessary health precautions to preserve their combat power and protecting the country. He further urged them to be patriotic and remained apolitical in the execution of their constitutional mandate. He further advised them to be more professional and avoid any distractions as we have a job to do and build a nation. He reminded the troops that we have inherited a broken system and to fix the problems requires the contributions of all and sundry. The Minister was impressed with what he saw during the tour especially the level of preparedness of the troops in the fight against Covid-19.
The troops however lamented on some logistics constraints such as operational fuel to conduct rigorous patrols along the porous border. They have also requested for more medical support such as face mask, personal Protective Equipment, gloves etc. The troops promised that if empowered can improvise some face mask that could be used by many people.
The Minister finally conveyed a message of goodwill from His Excellency the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Mr Adama Barrow. He assured the troops that the President is very much aware of their logistics constraints and sooner than later there will be great improvement in welfare and wellbeing of the troops and that of their families.
Source: Ministry of Defence