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Fatoumata Tambajang is new vice president

Jan 24, 2017, 10:38 AM | Article By: Kaddijatou Jawo

Fatoumata Jallow-Tambajang has been named as the new vice president of The Gambia in the government of President Adama Barrow.

She was adviser to the first president of The Gambia, Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara, on women and children’s affairs, and Yahya Jammeh’s minister of health, social welfare and women’s affairs, 1994-95.

She had also worked with the United Nations Development Programme as a gender and development expert. 

Her appointment was announced yesterday by Halifa Sallah, the spokesperson of the Coalition government, at a press conference held at Kairaba Beach Hotel in Kololi.

Madam Tambajang has been instrumental in successfully bringing the fragmented opposition parties to come together to form a formidable coalition to challenge the entrenched and veteran president, Yahya Jammeh.

She was later made the chairperson of the coalition,which eventually defeated Jammeh in the 1st December 2016 presidential election, bringing an abrupt end to Jammeh’s 22 years grip on power.

The new vice president was born on 22 October 1949 in Brikama.  She was schooled in The Gambia, Senegal and France.

She is a national female icon, mother of eight children and an award winning UNDP-groomed development practitioner focused on gender mainstreaming.

During her work with UNDP and other international women rights NGOs, she had manned various leadership positions for more than 20 years including in challenging environments such as in war-torn Mano River and Great Lakes regions.

She is said to be a dynamic human rights defender, active in women’s and political activism in The Gambia.

She had chaired the Gambia National Women’s Council, and represented it at the Gambia National Economic and Social Council for six years.

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