Military Of The Gambia
The Gambian National Army numbers about 2,500. A new batch of 620 recruits have recently joined. Recruits receive training from the Turkish-Gambian Training Team.
The army consists of infantry battalions, the national guard, and the navy, all under the authority of the Department of State for Defence (a ministerial portfolio held by President Jammeh). Prior to the 1994 coup, the Gambian army received technical assistance and training from the United States, People's Republic of China, Nigeria, and Turkey. With the withdrawal of most of this aid, the army has received renewed assistance from Turkey, Pakistan and Taiwan and new assistance from Libya and others. Pakistan sent an 18-month advisory team (the Pakistan Armed Forces Advisory Mission, or PAFAM) composed of 1 brigadier, 1 naval captain and 1 group captain from the PAF.
Members of the Gambian military have participated in ECOMOG, the West African force deployed during the Liberian civil war beginning in 1990. Responsibilities for internal security and law enforcement rest with the Gambian police/gendarme force under the inspector general of police and the ministry of the interior.
All branches are jointly governed by a chief of defence staff, Lieutenant General Massaneh Kinteh, who succeeded Lieutenant General Lang Tombong Tamba who is currently on death row for involvement in a 2009 coup plot.
Read more about Military Of The Gambia: Military Manpower - Availability, Military Expenditures, Aircraft Inventory
Famous quotes containing the word military:
“Who are we? And for what are we going to fight? Are we the titled slaves of George the Third? The military conscripts of Napoleon the Great? Or the frozen peasants of the Russian Czar? No—we are the free born sons of America; the citizens of the only republic now existing in the world; and the only people on earth who possess rights, liberties, and property which they dare call their own.”
—Andrew Jackson (1767–1845)