Source : Sahel weather February 2025

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On February 18, Gambia celebrated its 60th Independence Day under the theme "Walking together for self-sufficiency and national development". The commemoration was celebrated with great pomp, and several heads of state from the sub-region honored the occasion with their presence, including Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye and Guinea-Bissau President Umaro Sissoko Embalo, both guests of honor.

In his speech, President Adama Barrow emphasized the importance of autonomy, unity and national development. He also spoke of the country's significant advances under his presidency, such as freedom of expression, freedom of association and peace.  The ceremony was punctuated by a national dialogue on Gambian identity, addressing both its political landscape and other areas of national interest.

Is this a bluff or a real intention? That's the question on everyone's lips after ex-president Yahya Jammeh's declarations in an audio message to his supporters in the Alliance Patriotique pour la Réorientation et la Construction (APRC) (Patriotic Alliance for Reorientation and Construction) that he is ready to "take back the leadership of his political party and not entrust it to anyone else", before adding: "Whether you like it or not, by the grace of Allah, I'm coming back!

However, his comments are somewhat confusing, given that he is the subject of several complaints and that ECOWAS approved the creation of a special court in Banjul at the end of last year, notably for extrajudicial executions, arbitrary arrests and enforced disappearances of political opponents by death squads. To this threat he replied: "Let those who threaten to put me in prison wait until I arrive. The day of reckoning is approaching, and on that day, we will settle accounts". Will it come, or won't it?