The reported involvement of President Adama Barrow’s government in enabling the Russian Federation to evade western sanctions to export its oil to finance its war in Ukraine is increasingly gaining air time in the international media.
Last week, two Gambian flagged oil tankers of Russia’s Shadow Fleet were reportedly struck by Ukrainian sea-baby naval drones around Turkey.
At the end of 2022, the heavily sanctioned Russia put together a Shadow Fleet of oil tankers to go around the sanctions and the EU restrictions on the Russia seaborne crude and imports.
A lot of these tankers, which are reportedly flagged from countries such as The Gambia, have opaque insurance and are used by Russia to trade its oil to be able to, among others, bomb Ukrainian cities, uproot populations, disrupt Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, seize the country’s territories and cause humanitarian crisis for Ukraine and other countries in the western hemisphere.
JollofNews tried to speak to the Registrar of Vessels at the Gambia Maritime Administration (GMA), Mr. Fallou Gaye, about whether the GMA or the Gambia government was aware that the two Gambian-flagged tankers that were recently struck by Ukraine’s sea drones around the territorial waters of Turkey were in fact sanctioned by different countries, but he politely referred the medium to GMA’s mouthpiece, who could not be reached up to the time of this post.
According to experts and analysts, oil money is the main source of finance for Russia’s defense budget, which it employs to wreak misery on Ukrainians.
The Minister of Information, Dr. Ismaila Ceesay, could not be also reached for comment.
