Gambian freelance journalist and pro-democracy activist Fatou Jaw Manneh, was arrested by the National Intelligence Agency on 28 March on her arrival at Banjul International airport.

The Institute for Human Rights & Development in Africa requires a Legal Officer based in Banjul, Gambia. Closing date for applications is April 12th 2007 and applications should be sent to: [email][email protected]

The Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa requires publication officer based in the Gambia. Closing date for applications is April 23rd 2007. Interviews will be held in Banjul, The Gambia in May/June 2007. Kindly send your application and all relevant documents to [email][email protected]

For one year now, Gambians have been denied the right to read and hear alternative views in their national media. On 28 March last year, the country's leading independent voice, 'The Independent', was closed down by security forces and its editors were arrested and tortured. Since then, all news is censored in The Gambia.

Although there are many women-headed enterprises in Africa, it is important to understand the nature of these businesses and the conditions under which they operate. To promote enterprises to reduce poverty and also improve the situation of women, policymakers must be sensitive to the impact of gender relations on women entrepreneurs.

Arrested and detained on the eve of this year's international women's day, 42 Gambian sex workers were automatically excluded from the celebrations. And to add salt to their injury, the courts jailed them to serve a week in prison for violating section 167 of the Criminal Code, which outlaws vagabond and roguish life.

For the first time during the eight-month disappearance of Chief Ebrima Manneh, a reporter of the pro-government Banjul-based newspaper "Daily Observer", the Gambia Police Force officially denied ever arresting him.

The government of The Gambia gave the most senior United Nations official in the country 48 hours to leave the country starting Friday 23 February, following remarks she made criticising Gambian President Yahya Jammeh’s widely-publicised cure for HIV/AIDS.

Though the seat of the African Commission on Human and People's Rights, The Gambia has over the years been known for its dwindling human rights records, in particular torture by security forces. But the purported torturers will soon be challenged at the international legal courts, a clandestine activist group reveals.

"The sale of living female flesh for sexual gratification of men and income generation for the body seller is a trade old as society," said allgambian.net Staff Writer Lamin Sabally. Recently in urban Gambia, government cracked down on prostitutes leading to severe consequences in the law courts.

On 9 October 2006, a High Court in Banjul unconditionally released Malick Mboob, a journalist and former staff member of the "Daily Observer", a pro-government newspaper, after he was kept for 139 days in illegal detention for allegedly sending damaging information to an online US-based newspaper. According to a Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) Gambia source, the Court's decision followed a request filed by Mboob's counsel, Edward Gomez, seeking his unconditional release.

The Forum on the Participation of NGOs in the Ordinary Sessions of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights is one of the main advocacy tools that the African Centre for Democracy and Human Rights Studies uses to promote networking among Human Rights NGOs for the promotion and protection of human rights in Africa.

Fatou Lamin Faye, Secretary of State for Education, has described HIV/AIDS, as the biggest threat to development in many countries. Speaking at the opening of a five day HIV/AIDS national workshop held at the Kairaba Beach Hotel Monday, SoS Faye said the pandemic is also a major concern for our collective security in consideration of the fact that the most vulnerable group to this deadly disease are the women and youths who form the larger part of the workforce of African countries including the Gambia.

On 23 September 2006, Gambian president Yahya Jammeh repeated one of his long standing anti-press statements, hinting that he would be more ruthless in dealing with journalists and the media in his third five-year term of office.

On 8 September 2006, Dodou Sanneh, a journalist working with the state-owned Gambia Radio and Television Services (GRTS), was arrested and detained at a secret location by the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) for alleged biased reporting.According to a MFWA-Gambia source, on 13 September Sanneh was released and also relieved of his post.

Apainyassi is Senegalese. Yet, he says he plans to cast a vote in The Gambia's presidential elections later this month - in fact, he's already been issued with a voter card. Apainyassi, who doesn't want to give his full name, says he feels a greater affinity for his adoptive home and sees no reason why he shouldn't vote in the election.

GAMTEL is the primary provider of telecommunications and related services in The Gambia. The company’s main objective is to be a leader in providing world-class communications services.

President Yahya Jammeh Monday (Seotember 4) told party supporters at Sabakh Sanjal constituency, about 200 kilometres from Banjul the capital, on his campaign trail for the September 22 presidential elections that neither coup d’etat nor elections will remove him from power. “

The United Democratic Party (UDP)-led alliance will stamp out corruption if it is voted in to office, said Henry Gomez, the leader of the Gambia Party for Democracy and Development[GPDP], which is a member of the alliance during an interview with APA Monday (September 4).

The Gambia's opposition has criticised the government's decision to sack the independent electoral commission head. No reason has been given for the dismissal, weeks before elections. Opposition leader Halifa Sallah told the BBC that the move confirmed what he called the commission's lack of independence and impartiality.