Africa
The size of military to be reduced
By Sankulleh Gibril Janko, The Point, Thursday, August 16, 2018
Aug 18, 2018 - 11:05:21 AM

As part of the security reform process, the size of the Gambia Armed Forces will have be to cut down,  President Adama Barrow has said a in press conference with journalists on Tuesday at State House.

The president was responding to a question posed in light of the slow security reform process citing numerous factors that have to be put into play.

“With the military, we have started checking records how people came in to the army and this is a process that is going on,” he went on. “It is all part of the security reform, but we need finance also because we need to reduce the size of the army; in doing that there must be handshake with officers we don’t need in the military.”

He assured the keenly attentive journalists that the process is going on, citing the importance of the military as an institution to his government.

“The security reform is in place and the process is going on. We have a security adviser who is working on this security reform process,” he divulged. “The security sector is very important for this government. It’s an institution that is very very important and the system was polluted for 22years.”

The head of state said his government does not want the same mistake which gave rise to setting up a team that will look into the reform process.

“We don’t want to make mistakes, we want to make the right decision that’s why we have a team that is working on it and we are waiting for the white paper.”

He said the team will help them to determine what their next move will be.

“If we get the white paper, that is the time we will know what will be our next move, but the process have started.”