Officials from the Gambia security sector reform programme have embarked on study tours to three countries to learned from their experiences. 

At an inter-ministerial weekly news conference, the nation’s security adviser, retired army colonel, Momodou Badjie, said: “Study tours on the experience of Ghana, Sierra Leone and Kosovo were conducted for better comparative understanding of the real-life dynamics of the security sector reform.”

He added: “Like The Gambia, these are countries that went through grave social and political upheavals at various times of their historical evolution and witnessed significant transformation from totalitarian dictatorship to fledgling democracies.”

Mr Badjie said the national defence and internal security reform strategies are being prepared for adoption. According to him, this includes the Security Vetting Act that is drafted and training workshop on vetting is in progress.

“This process has as its main target, the passing of the vetting act by the national assembly, enactment of the office of national security, operationalisation of the vetting agency and the development of a counterterrorism strategy,” Mr Badjie said.

But the security sector reform programme face much criticism among Gambians who say they are not seeing much commitment of the government in fast-tracking the process since the establishment of the programme in 2017.

Reporting by Adama Makasuba