Gambian President Jammeh Appoints Three More Cabinet Members
February 08, 2012, 2:56 AM ESTBy Suwaibou Touray
Feb. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Gambian President Yahya Jammeh announced three more Cabinet appointments, including Mamadou Tangara as foreign minister.
Jammeh also named Abdou Kolley as fisheries and water resources minister, and Mariama Sarr Ceesay as minister for higher education, according to a statement from the president’s office published in the Banjul-based Daily Observer newspaper yesterday. Kolley was previously the West African nation’s trade minister, while Tangara and Ceesay resume roles they had before the Cabinet was dissolved on Feb. 2, it said.
On Feb. 2, Jammeh appointed Mamburay Njie as finance minister; Fatou Mass Jobe as minister of tourism; Ousman Sonko as minister of the interior; and Isatou Njie Saidy as vice president and minister of women’s affairs. All four served in the previous Cabinet.
Jammeh, who has ruled Gambia since seizing power in a coup in 1994, won a fourth term in office in elections in November. The vote was condemned by the Economic Community of West African States, which refused to send observers saying the political environment wasn’t conducive to free and fair elections.
Of the 21 positions in Gambia’s previous Cabinet, 14 posts remain to be filled.
--Editors: Paul Richardson, Alastair Reed.
To contact the reporter on this story: Suwaibou Touray in Banjul via Nairobi at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Antony Sguazzin at asguazzin@bloomberg.net.
