In August of 1990, a military plane, carrying over 135 Gambian peace-keepers, took off at the Banjul International Airport for the Lungi International Airport in Sierra Leone, marking the beginning of a dangerous and gruelling nine-month peace-keeping mission for the troops to the then war-torn Liberia, but after raising the Gambian flag sky-high in the peace-keeping mission, the peace-keepers were neither celebrated nor honoured nearly four decades down the line by the nation they so made proud.
Liberia descended into a bloody civil war in late 1989, prompting West African leaders at the time, including Sir Dawda Jawara of The Gambia, General (rtd.) Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida of Nigeria, Flight Lieutenant (rtd.) Jerry John Rawlings of Ghana, Colonel (rtd.) Lansana Conte of Le Guinea and Captain (rtd.) Joseph Saidou Momoh of Sierra Leone, to deploy a sub-regional military intervention force to the country to bring back peace.
What was expected to be a peace-enforcement mission turned deadly for the peace-keepers as they experienced their baptism of fire at the free port of Monrovia during their first days of arrival. Kombo Sanyang-born army medic Corporal Lamin Bojang became the first Gambian military causality at the Monrovia free port after a shrapnel of a Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG) was lodged into his head and he died of his injuries a little later. The Gambian contingent also suffered another fatality when the Basse Koba Kunda-born army private Sama Jawo was killed in a rebel fire as he accompanied then Lt. Momodou Kambi on a mission around Monrovia.
These developments, according to the Bakau-born former army corporal Kebba Sulayman Cham, had homed in on the Gambian peace-keepers the gravity of the task at hand.
This experience was, however, compounded when the Gambia contingent was given frontline responsibilities like rescue missions, patrols, checkpoint duties and offensive operations.
“Due to the relatively young age of the Gambia National Army at the time, the ECOMOG felt we could be manning the inner cordon at the force HQ. However, due to the intrusions of Prince Johnson’s rebels into the port because the Sierra Leoneans, manning the gates were behaving timid with the rebels, the Gambians were brought to the outer cordon to prevent rebel attacks,” Cham, who was then 22 years old, recounted in a riveting interview with Coffee Time With Peter Gomez.
In his narration, the former army corporal highlighted some of the communication challenges between the Gambian peace-keepers and the civilian authority in Banjul, leading to lack of food rations, diseases and dwindling troop morale.
“Our only point of contact then was through the Gambian military liaison officer in Sierra Leone Captain Lawrence Jarra. Food became a real problem as we most of the time ran out of ration. At one point, we even had to cook the leaves of a native plant to eat and it had caused many consequences for us such as eye complications (Apolo), swollen feet and stomach issues. Ben Johnson’s feet were swollen for months as a result,” Cham, who is currently the treasurer of the Gambia Armed Forces Veterans Association, said.
However, food was not the only challenge. Access to clean and safe drinking water became non-existent.
“Due to the lack of running water in Monrovia at the time, we had to scoop water from gutters and stream in a forest. You can see dead bodies in the gutters but we had no choice,” Cham explained.
Cham further explained that at one point, they had to trek kilometers to a water source in the forest but when they reached there, the stream was already infested with dead bodies.
“We had no option but to harvest the water,” he stated.
The woes of the Gambia’s first contingent to Liberia were exacerbated by the non-payment of their 70-day three-dollar daily subsistence allowance.
The contingent, led by Lt. Sheikh Omar Faye, notwithstanding served with gallantry and distinction until the end of their deployment.
However, the peace-keepers, who left behind two of their fallen comrades in Liberia, returned home without much fanfare at the Banjul International Airport.
“We had huge expectations that we would find our parents [at the airport] or the nation would converge there to welcome us,” Cham stated.
But the peace-keepers were wrong in their assumption.
The current CDS Gen. Mamat O. Cham, who was then a lieutenant and an adjutant at the army HQ camp in Yundum, was the only Gambia National Army (GNA) officer, who was at the airport alongside a British army major with some recruits, to welcome them.
“The welcome was very funny. We were taken to the barracks and isolated from our belongings,” Cham recounted.
However, at this point, rumours had gone round that former GNA officer Captain Maba Jobe had planted the seed of coup d’etat against the Jawara administration in the hearts of the Gambian peace-keepers while he was with them in Liberia.
“When we arrived, soldiers and officers that we knew and joked with before we left for Liberia were treating us with cold shoulders, distancing themselves from us. And on the whole, rumours that we have turned to rebels in Liberia and have plotted to launch a coup d’etat had spread,” Cham narrated. “Maba was the ECOMOG camp commander. He did not have contact with us when we were in the front or when we were coming home. Maba never organized, encouraged or urged us to stage a coup d’etat. That never happened. The allegation stemmed from a power struggle among the senior army officers and it was a grudge against Maba.”
Cham further explained that despite the abysmal welcoming ceremony at the airport, the returning peace-keepers were expecting a befitting military parade, which would have been graced by Sir Dawda.
However, when the parade was mounted, Sir Dawda was nowhere to be seen.
Cham said the Liberia war veterans have yet to receive any national honour or recognition since their return 35 years on.
