- Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has pleaded with the President of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to meditate with the Gambian authorities in a case of a missing journalist, Ebrima Manneh since 2006.
According to a letter from RSF addressed to Dr Mohamed Chambas, the president of ECOWAS, the president’s involvement will convince the Gambian leadership to shed light on the whereabouts of the missing journalist.
Last year, an ECOWAS court ordered the Gambian government to free Mr Manneh and pay him compensation, but the government continued to deny holding him.
In a ruling issued on 5 June 2008, the ECOWAS Court of Justice, which is based in the Nigerian city of Abuja, formally ordered President Yahya Jammeh’s government to release Mr Manneh and pay him $100,000 in damages, but the government refused to cooperate.
According to the organisation, the Gambian justice minister Marie Saine Firdaus denied on 6 April that Mr Manneh had never been detained in a Gambian prison.
“There are no reports of Mr Manneh being seen since then and some police officer believe he is now dead,” Reporters Without Borders said.
Mr Manneh, a journalist with the privately owned Daily Observer, has been missing ever since his arrest by members of the National Intelligence Agency on 7 July 2006, a few days after an African Union summit in Banjul.
The reason for his arrest never came to light and the Gambian government has always refused to provide any information about what has happened to him.
Mr Manneh was reportedly being held in a provincial police station in January 2007 and then in Banjul’s Mile Two prison in July 2007, before being transferred to a hospital.
afrol News - It is called "financial inclusion", and it is a key government policy in Rwanda. The goal is that, by 2020, 90 percent of the population is to have and actively use bank accounts. And in only four years, financial inclusion has doubled in Rwanda.
afrol News - The UN's humanitarian agencies now warn about a devastating famine in Sudan and especially in South Sudan, where the situation is said to be "imploding". Relief officials are appealing to donors to urgently fund life-saving activities in the two countries.
afrol News - Fear is spreading all over West Africa after the health ministry in Guinea confirmed the first Ebola outbreak in this part of Africa. According to official numbers, at least 86 are infected and 59 are dead as a result of this very contagious disease.
afrol News - It is already a crime being homosexual in Ethiopia, but parliament is now making sure the anti-gay laws will be applied in practical life. No pardoning of gays will be allowed in future, but activist fear this only is a signal of further repression being prepared.
afrol News / Africa Renewal - Ethiopia's ambitious plan to build a US$ 4.2 billion dam in the Benishangul-Gumuz region, 40 km from its border with Sudan, is expected to provide 6,000 megawatts of electricity, enough for its population plus some excess it can sell to neighbouring countries.
front page
| news
| countries
| archive
| currencies
| news alerts login
| about afrol News
| contact
| advertise
| español