By Mustapha Jarju
Gambian soldiers led by Commander Lieutenant Colonel Omar Bojang last Saturday conducted border patrol at the twenty affected Gambian border villages due to the Casamance conflict that displaced more than thirteen thousand people.
Speaking to journalists during the patrol, army spokesman Captain Malick Sanyang, said: “These are areas where most of the shells land and most of the shells that they were talking about lands in Balen village.”
At Funtang, the convoy made a brief stop at a cashew farm which was burnt January 24th by a shell which landed around the area setting fire on the cashew farm as a result of the fight in Casamance.
Meanwhile, Ebrima Bojang, alkalo of Balen said: “we are suffering a lot the bullets have landed here in the village twice in which the second one was more tensed. They landed in our village and it made everyone to run except me and few other people. We used to hide behind trees it is very difficult for us here.”
He continued in his narration that “there was a day a shell landed in the village and was not explode but the shell was quickly moved by response patrol team in Kanilai.” He acknowledged the patrol team and said they are trying a lot as regarding to protecting the area; advising and providing securities to allow them work without fear in their cashew farms, “we really commend them for their efforts.”
According to him, some of their animals have migrated as far as inside Senegal, noting “the Senegalese soldiers told us to go for it but we insist not going because it is not safe for us as there is still war in the area.”
