By Mustapha Jarju
The National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA) has released a statistical data report on the Gambians affected by the conflict on the country’s southern border with Senegal.
Fierce fighting between Senegalese forces and MFDC rebels started on March 13, 2022, with heavy gunfights shuttling shells into Gambian villages at the border.
The Gambia’s National Disaster Management Agency says the conflict-affected nine thousand nine hundred and seventy-three (9973) Gambians living around the southern border with Senegal in the Casamance region including five thousand six hundred and twenty-six (5626) internally displaced persons who left their villages since the conflict began to seek refuge in communities across districts in Foni and Kombo.
The Disaster body indicates that seven thousand and forty-four (7044) Gambian students are also affected since most schools around the southern border continued are shuttered due to heavy gunfire and shelling affecting Gambian villages in Foni.
The agency also reported three hundred and seventy-four (374) pregnant and lactating women living within the southern border affected by intensified fighting in Casamance.
NDMA further stated that the number of refugees currently residing in The Gambia now stands at six hundred and ninety-one (691) as scores of people flee from renewed fighting, which continues in Casamance for 9 days now.
Three thousand six hundred and fifty-six (3656) families are hosting internally displaced persons and refugees including 2,029 (two thousand and twenty-nine) children are under the age of five (5), According to NDMA.
