By: Kebba Ansu Manneh
Members of the Sanyang Development Fund (SDF) and the councilor for Sanyang Ward have issued fresh demands that the Ministry of Works and the Gambia Ports Authority immediately stop all activities linked to the planned Deep Sea Port and return to negotiations with the community.
The call was made on Tuesday, 8 September 2026, during a radio panel discussion on Home FM in Brikama. Speakers insisted the authorities publish the full sketch plan and map of the proposed port area, pay adequate compensation, and revert to the site previously agreed with villagers.
“Our demands are very simple,” said Saikou Camara, chairman of the SDF Diaspora Chapter and secretary general and legal compliance officer of the Sanyang UK Association. “We want the Ministry of Works and Gambia Ports Authority to produce the map of the proposed Deep Sea Port. This will allow us to know where the port starts and where it ends. We want them to tell us who gave them the land and who ordered them to lease communal land without the knowledge of the villagers.”
Camara said the community also wants full compensation and a return to the earlier agreed location. “What we want Minister of Works Ebrima Sillah to understand is that SDF and all patriotic natives of Sanyang will never relent on these issues until the community has its fair share of the project.”
He warned that SDF members would continue to raise irregularities until all entitlements due to Sanyang are addressed. Camara added that individuals currently speaking to government officials “have no authority to speak on behalf of the community” and “are not even the owners of the land.”
Camara alleged that a small number of elders, particularly former Interior Minister Major Momodou Bojang, were responsible for divisions in the village. He claimed Bojang had encouraged members of the dissolved Village Development Committee to defy legal orders. Bojang, he said, is an ordinary native of Sanyang, not an alkali, head of a kabilo or member of the Bulunda, and therefore has no mandate to speak for the people.
Councilor Botto Bojang condemned a recent meeting between the Ministry of Works, the GPA and a few community members on compensation. He said engaging dissolved VDC members and others without proper authority would only complicate matters. Misunderstandings began on the day President Adama Barrow laid the foundation stone, when community members and local authorities were told not to attend the site, he recalled.
Bojang urged the ministry and the ports authority to resume talks with the Sanyang Deep Sea Port Taskforce Committee, which he described as the only body mandated to discuss the project.
Yankuba Ceesay, chairman of the SDF Home Chapter, said many residents had received notices to vacate while questions of compensation, the port’s exact location and community benefits remained unresolved. “We are calling on the Ministry of Works and the Gambia Ports Authority to go back to the drawing board and engage the right authorities in Sanyang,” he said. “We are calling on them to cease any further engagement with the dissolved VDC as well as Major Momodou Bojang on any matters dealing with the DSP project.”
Ceesay stressed that Sanyang welcomes the port but will not accept the loss of communal land without compensation, employment guarantees for young people or gardens for women.
Ebrima Kinteba Touray of SDF Diaspora said the Taskforce is the only body authorized by the people to discuss the project. Meetings held without its full participation should be disregarded, he said. He warned that SDF would consider court action if key concerns were not addressed and called on residents to oppose what he described as the forceful seizure of land without due process.
Lawyer Lamin J. Darboe, counsel for SDF, accused the ministry and GPA of dishonesty. The community’s core demand, he said, is adequate compensation for its resources. If that demand is not met, legal action would be “the last card.” He described dealings with members of the dissolved VDC as illegal.
The speakers presented a unified position: stop current operations, publish the plans, compensate the community properly, and negotiate only with the recognized Taskforce. They framed the dispute as one of process, land rights, and fair benefit rather than opposition to the port itself.
