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With Europeans Pumping €365M into Gambia
“NO DEADLINE SET BY E.U” FOR BARROW GOV’T
By Ebrima Papa Colley (Gambiano)
The money comes from European taxpayers, in the exact words of Ambassador Attila Lajos in a forGambia News exclusive, Wednesday. And he did not think there would come a time when the European Union would say “we are tired,” he stated. But the Barrow administration, responsibly, has to make the SRR (Security Sector Reform) an efficacious venture, according to the ambassador.
“Allow me to clarify something. There is no deadline set by E.U per say. What happens is that ECOWAS heads of states, the ECOWAS authority who approved the current mandate for the ECOMIG forces in The Gambia—that current mandate was approved by the ECOWAS authority running from here till end of September this year. And this is how there is a deadline, so to say, because when ECOWAS headquarter approached the European Union and asked for financial assistance to provide funding for the ECOMIG troops in The Gambia which the E.U positively considered and allocated €14 million for these expenses, at that time the mandate was the basis on which the decision was made. So, this current mandate of ECOMIG troops in The Gambia is coming to and end, end of September this year,” Mr. Lajos explained.
It is clear the Gambian morass has become a source of employment for regional boots on the ground as has been happening elsewhere. Quite a searching irony is the fact that Gambian sons and daughters are still serving in Darfur on similar mission while the home front is militarily indigent. The Barrow administration unequivocally and continuously remains distrustful of its own indigenous soldiers. The president’s own security guards are Senegalese. With money pumping in—and somewhat guaranteed, would Senegal, the predominant beneficiary of the Euro cash fecundity fool-hardily call for an end to the ECOMIG presence in The Gambia? Syrian forces remained in Lebanon from 1976 to 2005—a span of sixteen years until a U.N resolution decided otherwise. And those forces were not getting a powerful currency remuneration.
An anonymous expert and analyst, speaking to forGambia earlier this week gathered information that most of the E.U cash flow goes to Senegal. While it is clearly up to regional journalists to pose serious questions at local authorities in both Banjul and Senegal, especially with regards to what currency is paid to each ECOMIG soldier per month, it is public witnessing that President Adama Barrow is quite adamantine in retaining his Senegalese security. It is in the financial interest of Senegal to keep Gambia epileptically-composed and artificially worried—a move that forcefully drives a wedge between President Barrow and his Gambia National Army. It thenceforth remains a subconsciously spoken thesis to Gambians, “I don’t trust you, my own folks around me. But I covet your votes and cheer.”
The above is not dogma. It was ECOWAS that, indeed “approached” the Europeans for a security funding in The Gambia which was “positively considered.” According to Ambassador Lajos, the E.U pledges of €365 million is not all cash. There are projects and kind interventions. But he was quick to state that a third of the total pledge is actually European cash from taxpayers. “That’s about €130 million,” he said, adding that the money comes in installments.
“We also have the so-called budgetary support, which is the disbursement of cash from the treasury of Europe to the treasury in The Gambia via bank transfer which amounts to approximately one-third of the total amount [€365 million] which is around €130 million. Amount of budgetary support was not disbursed in one leg. There are disbursements based on different conditions and they are coming gradually—months or twice a year in size of twenty-five or thirty million each time. So, this is a projection of the total budgetary support which by the year of 2022 will reach a total of €130 million,” Mr. Lajos said
This means if Jammeh had ensured a smooth transfer of power, there wouldn’t have been ECOMIG forces in The Gambia. The E.U money could have directly gone to building our poor roads and other infrastructure. Or perhaps equip our hospitals with electricity and state of art equipment. But it means Jawara also has to share the blame. If he had served only two terms and hammered a limit in the constitution, perhaps Yahya and his angry lot would have been somewhere else on July 22nd 1994.
forGambia will continue serializing the interview with E.U Ambassador Atilla Lajos in coming publications. Gambiano821@gmail.com
The Gambian People don’t need any deadline from EU on Barrow’s administration… Let Barrow step down to honor his promises… Let’s remember that The Gambia is not EU and EU is not The Gambia