Gambia’s President Adama Barrow has sworn-in 10 cabinet ministers in the capital Banjul on Wednesday.
Among them are political prisoners during exiled former President Yahya
Jammeh’s regime including leader of the main opposition United
Democratic Party (UDP) Ousainou Darboe, Omar Jallow, women’s right
activist Dr Isatou Touray and National Treasurer of UDP Amadou Sanneh
who was released from prison on Monday.
Darboe, who is now the Foreign Affairs Minister was arrested in
April 2016 for protesting against the death of a detained party member
and was released together with 18 other opposition members immediately
after the election of Adama Barrow.
“Gambians have been liberated from the tyranny of
Yahya Jammeh and we are ready to serve the country efficiently without
bias nor nepotism,” Darboe told the media after the swearing-in.
The
Finance and Economic Minister Amadou Sanneh had been serving a five-year
jail term in the past three years for a sedition conviction until
Monday when he was pardoned.
Leader of the opposition People’s
Progressive Party (PPP) and now Agriculture Minister Omar Jallow has
also been arrested several times by Jammeh’s security forces while the
first female presidential candidate and now Trade Minister Dr Isatou
Touray spent some time in prison in 2010.
The other appointed ministers have been equally critical of Yahya Jammeh’s government.
