The United States government through its Department of Defence on Sunday, September 22, sent five Gambians for a weeklong training course focusing on proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) in Accra, Ghana. The personnel were drawn from The Gambian Armed Forces (GAF), The Gambia Police Force (GPF), The Gambia Immigration Department (GID), the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDEA), and The Gambia Customs.
The US Department of Defence funded course is comprised of approximately 40 mid-level officers from West African nations including The Gambia, Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Guinea, Niger, and Senegal. The course will address both state proliferation and non-state actor proliferation - examining the key differences in scale and intent. The participants will be afforded the opportunity to examine the mechanics of modern proliferation, how proliferation networks succeed, and the spectrum of activities that require constant surveillance and observation if proliferation is to be detected, disrupted, or dismantled. The course aims to increase the capacity of Gambian law enforcement and military to interdict WMDs.