Ebrima Jobarteh, who was on an assessment tour of the country’s border sites amid declaration of closing of borders, also paid a courtesy call on his Senegalese counterpart at the Amdalai Border Post.
Commissioner Jobarteh reiterated both Presidents Barrow and Sall’s commitment to the spirit of friendliness and good neighbourliness between the two countries.
“In fact, if necessary give information to each other once you suspect any person avoiding the official entering point so that they can visit the health personnel that are stationed at the border sites,” he advised.
The assessment tour, officials said was aimed at getting first-hand information on how frontline officers are working. The team on Friday visited Amdalai Border Post, Giboro Border Post, Dimbaya and Darsilameh Border Posts among other porous route sites within the West Coast Region that link The Gambia and Senegal.
Baboucarr Diaw, at Karang Border Post, hailed the commissioner of Operations for his tour and also for visiting them, saying “this clearly indicates that Gambia and Senegal are the same but divided by our colonial masters. I can tell you that we are working closely especially in this difficult situation of the coronavirus pandemic.”
Speaking at Bajaran village, where the team met the WCR patrol team, Jobarteh said: “Community participation more especially villages around the border are key towards the fight against the deadly coronavirus. Our officers are doing everything possible in ensuring that people using our porous borders to illegally enter the country are stopped.”
“We have our officers stationed at different locations within Amdalai and the surrounding villages with a view to intercepting people who are using our porous routes to enter the country. We have a good coordination comprising the custom, police and operatives of the State Intelligence Service. We’re all working in one direction; that is to ensure that no one enters the country undetected,” Manlafi Manneh, officer commanding, Amdalai, assured.
Abdou M. Jeng, a custom stationed manager at Giboro Border Post and Modou Manneh, GID officer commanding Giboro, both pointed out that since the president’s declaration of border closure, the security personnel within the area are working closely to ensure that the declaration is enforced and no one is allowed to illegally enter Gambian territory.
Mamanding Dibba, the GID’s spokesperson said following the president’s declaration of the closure of borders, the management of GID immediately directed that the measure is implemented across all regions.
“We realise that the official entry points are not the only places that could effectively help us to restrict people’s movement. There are so many other illicit routes or unrecognised routes that link Gambia and Senegal that people can use to enter the country. Therefore, we decided to reinforce our patrols geared toward the fight against covid-19.”
