Gambia Police say they are beefing up security ahead of the December 4 presidential election in a bid to curb insecurity.

The announcement comes amid growing public concern over the sharp rise in crimes in the country.

“We are intensifying our security operations to ensure our routine patrol especially when it comes to the fight against crime which is seriously intensifying. 

“We are also working on intelligence gathering because we know when it comes to elections, we need to do a lot when it comes to intelligence gathering and criminal intelligence for that matter,” police spokesman Superintendent Lamin Njie said.

“We are also working hard to ensure that police station infrastructure and facilities are very well improved to be able to support the operations that are conducted there.”

Superintendent Njie added: “[In] 2021 we have done a review of our activities of 2020 and some of the issues we have engaged in, especially regarding the fight against crime, the achievements, the setbacks and the challenges.

“We have done analyses of this so we are putting in place a proper plan especially the fact that 2021 is election year.”

According to him, the Office of the Inspector General of Police has been engaged in ensuring that new police stations are open across the country “to help in enhancing the welfare of officers so that their performance will be great”.

Reporting by Adama Makasuba