Campaigners are pushing ahead with plan to amplify calls for justice for the 69 children who died of acute kidney injury (AKI) as the Minister of Health, Dr. Ahmadou Lamin Samateh, refuses to throw in the towel.
“As a campaign, we are a group of sovereign citizens who are determined to fulfil our moral, legal, and political obligation to demand justice for the unnecessary, illegal, and untimely death,” civil society groups said in preliminary statement issued on Sunday evening during a presser held at Child Protection Alliance (CPA) in Bakoteh, Kanifing Municipality.
Four India-made syrups have been blamed for the death of 66 children in Gambia, prompting the World Health Organisation (WHO) to issue an alert over the contaminated drugs.
The advocacy groups unloaded on Gambian authorities, calling the government as “chief perpetrator.”
“We do not see this current crisis as an isolated case but rather indicative of a long-standing series of failures of public institutions to be responsive to the needs of the people,” the statement added
Unleashing hell on Gambia government, Madi Jobarteh, decried the poor service delivery of the country’s health system.
“If your health system is the best, why are you taking test samples to Ghana or Senegal?” he quizzed in an attempt to shutdown Dr. Samateh who made it clear that the country’s healthcare is the best in the su-bregion.
He then called out the Medicines Control Agency (MCA) for failing to comply with the legislation that deal with protection of Gambians when importing equipment or drugs.
“The laws are there,” he said while indicating that we gave a perennial systemic problem in this country.
“We are the ones dying. Ultimately, we have to sit at home with the pain,” he lamented.
The Kololi-based victims’ centre Chairperson, Sheriff Kijera, took the gloves off and did not hesitate to liken the death of 69 children to atrocities committed under the Jammeh regime.
He reaffirmed the open-door policy of the centre, adding that he won’t spare time to seek advice from lawyers while dangling possible lawsuit against anyone linked with the loss of young lives.
Activist Fatima Zahra expressed similar sentiments. She then re-echoed calls for accountability to prevail in a case that continues to generate headlines.
More Voices…
As the JusticeFor66+ campaign is gaining momentum, the Gambia Bar Association (GBA) and the Female Lawyers Association of The Gambia (FLAG) issued a joint statement today, expressing sadness over the “untimely deaths of 69 Gambian children from acute kidney injuries (AKI).”
The two legal bodies seized the opportunity to dive into the legislation surrounding the importation of medical products in The Gambia, making it very clear that everything “is regulated and administered by the Medicines Control Agency (MCA) in accordance with the Medicines and Related Products Act 2014.”
“The primary responsibility of the MCA under the act is to regulate the quality and safety of medicines and related products,” the statement added.
GBA and FLAG expressed ‘grave concerns’ at the manufacturer “whose reputation and credibility according to widely available public records is dubious.”
The legal watchdogs reminded health authorities about the right to information of the general populace as to “how such dangerous/contaminated and unsafe products were allowed into the country and administered to children.”
