Gambia: Intelligence Chief Says Gambia's Cyberspace Remains Challenging

17 June 2022
The Point (Banjul)
By Momodou Jawo

Ousman Sowe, the director general of the State Intelligence Service (SIS) has stated that the country remains calm and peaceful, saying cyber bullying and hatred remain and issues especially within the cyberspace.

"The cyberspace will continue to be a challenge. We don't see it going tomorrow, but again we call for restraint and restriction. The cyberspace itself doesn't generate hate but it is what people put on it and it doesn't radicalise people, but it's the abuses and activities of abusers that generate these issues. Therefore, we call on restraint and restriction among Gambians," he said, on Wednesday at the SIS Training Academy for Security Studies at Banjulinding on Wednesday.

"We will continue to advise on restraint, national reconciliation and national harmony. We will continue to advice the national character of Gambia in almost all the undertaken we do," the country's spy chief said.

DG Sowe, who was speaking while outlining the activities undertaken by the service during the past five years, said: "The SIS is now among the most respected, credible and one of the most reformed institutions in the country.

"We will continue to reform, reposition and recast the service. Our aspirations are to make the service one of the best within the sub-region and the world at large."

Cyber threats, Sowe went on, are evolving, hence the SIS would continue to build the capacity of its staff on all aspects so that they would continue to provide the much needed security for Gambians people. "In the next five years, we will have a SIS with a lot of cyber capacity."

"With the current trajectory, the SIS will be the premiere intelligence service for this country. We want the Gambian people to see the SIS as an SIS of the Gambian people. There might be no imminent threats in the country, but obviously regional and global situation like the terrorism in the Sahel is a matter that we should pay attention to as a country," he posited"

"We will continue to reform the SIS for it to be a better service, more professional. We want the SIS to be a service for the Gambian people with a well-trained and motivated and for it to be a service that is focused and with respect for human rights. We want it to be a service that's loyal and a service that has courage."

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