By Lamin Kujabi
The President of the Republic and Commander-in-Chief of the Gambia Armed Forces His Excellency Adama Barrow on Friday, March 15th at State House in Banjul, decorated three personnel of the high command of the Gambia Armed Forces after elevating their ranks. Mamat O. Cham, Chief of Defence Staff of The Gambia Armed Forces has been promoted to Lieutenant General; Ousman Gomez, Deputy Chief of Defence Staff, promoted to Major General; while Sait Njie, Commander of Gambia National Army, promoted to Brigadier General. The three generals had gone through vigorous trainings both nationally and internationally, and have achieved high level of military career professionalism with high academic qualifications in different fields.
The newly promoted general officers took the six oaths of office, administered by Abubacar Sulayman Jeng, National Security Adviser.
In his address President Adama Barrow congratulated the newly promoted personnel, and touted them to successfully lead The Gambia Armed Forces’ transformation agenda.
Noting the significance of the occasion, the President said it is happening at the time when the country is facing security challenges both nationally and regionally. He said his government has put up efforts to empower the Armed Forces through capacity building programmes in many areas, both nationally and internationally, in order to have a standard professional army.
He assured that government will continue to provide support including one on logistics to GAF to be able to better perform their duty.
Serign Modou Njie, Minister of Defence, applauded the Commander-in-Chief for approving the promotion of the general officers and congratulated them on their promotion.
He noted that The Gambia Armed Forces is going through tremendous transformation thanks to the President’s leadership, the many institutional development initiatives, including capacity building, as part of the security sector reform programme.
He made reference to the development of institutional and capacity building frameworks meant to scale up the professional efficiency of GAF through the active support of partners.
“I thank all our training partners such as the Republic of Turkiye, Nigeria, Ghana, United Kingdom, Pakistan, United States, Bangladesh and other countries for their extreme support,” he remarked.
The Defence minister finally advised the promoted general officers to redouble their efforts in combating security challenges that the country is facing, and expressed Government’s commitment to addressing the security challenge.
Lieutenant General Mamat O. Cham, ninth Chief of Defence Staff of The Gambia Armed Forces, while expressing gratitude to the President for the trust and confidence, promised that The Gambia Armed Forces will continue to preserve peace, protect people of The Gambia and safeguard the sovereignty of the country.
He affirmed the series of capacity building programmes his men and women have benefited from and relished the fact that the Armed Forces is building confidence in civilian relation. He assured that the Force will be transparent and accountable to civilian authority.
300 State House personnel of the Gambia Armed Forces were trained on VIP protection; especially providing security to the President and the first family and the entire State House.
