By: Mariama Njie
Mamma Kandeh, leader of Gambia Democratic Congress has said that the coronavirus pandemic is forcing most people to rely on coping strategies including selling their assets.
“As we already seen, it is forcing most people to rely on coping strategies with potential long-lasting negative effects, such as the sale of their productive assets which they often use to sustain their lives,” he added.
“Most of our people are reducing their spending on food as a result, which has significant consequences for their nutrition hence the number of Gambians currently living under the national poverty line has increased abysmally,” he added.
The leader cantered around the state of emergency has also argued the pandemic is pushing ‘thousands of our people into extreme poverty.’
According to him, “The poor masses are bearing the most severe impacts of the pandemic related containment measures imposed by our government.”
“The clear disruptions in the food supply and markets and the ability of Gambians especially the less-privileged ones to deal with potential shortages or prices hikes for food and other necessity items have become very low, and emerging data suggests that the poverty and distributional impacts of COVID-19 in the country are materializing fast, with dire consequences,” he said.