Team:Edinburgh/mapxmlgambia



Gambia <![CDATA[The Gambia signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 4 December 1997.

The Gambia has seemingly been contaminated by mines as a result of spillover from ongoing violence in the Casamance region of Senegal. In early December 2007, a landmine exploded at a border village in the Gambia’s Western division. Local villagers subsequently claimed that it was no longer safe to graze cattle in the area. They also declared that the incident had sent “a wave of fear” through the villages close to Casamance.

Demining

There is no formal mine action program in the Gambia. In late December 2007, the Gambian Armed Forces (GAF) Public Relations Officer, Lieutenant Alagie Sanneh, noted that sufficient time was needed to study the patterns of mines laid. While noting that the army had enough trained personnel, Lt. Sanneh said that landmine incidents were uncommon in the Gambia and that the army was not readily equipped to deal promptly with the situation. Lt. Sanneh said that with enough time, GAF would be in a position to satisfactorily carry out demining, but cautioned that the exercise could not be done soon “as mines are often laid indiscriminately.”

In 2007, mine/ERW casualties were reported for the first time in the Gambia. On 2 December 2007, a nine-year-old boy and girl were killed and an eight-year-old girl injured in a landmine incident in Gilanfari, a village on the border with Senegal’s Casamance region. Another media report referred to a mine killing one man and injuring another, also in December, but it has not been possible to verify this information.

On 1 May 2008, 20 people were injured and one killed when a Gambian-registered bus drove over a landmine in Senegal on the way to the Gambia.

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