Published On 1/6/2026
The Chief of Staff of the Gambia’s Armed Forces, Lieutenant General Mmat Sham, submitted his resignation at the end of last week, after weeks of successive accusations published by the Kerr Fatou and What’s On Gambia platforms regarding alleged corruption and abuse of office. President Adama Barrow accepted the resignation and appointed Major General Othman Gomez as acting Chief of Staff.
The roots of the crisis go back to Sergeant Modou Sen, the former personal assistant to Lieutenant General Cham, who revealed in extensive interviews a series of accusations supported by what he described as evidentiary documents. According to what was published by Care Fatto, Sen had a close relationship with the Chief of Staff, as he performed personal and official tasks for him, before the relationship between them deteriorated as a result of a reprimand the sergeant received for a protocol violation, so he asked to be transferred, and he ended up being referred for retirement prematurely.
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The most prominent accusations reported by Care Fatwa related to boats confiscated by the Gambian Navy from migrant smuggling networks. Sen claimed that Cham used his powers to obtain these boats at low prices at official auctions, then re-registered them in his name with the Maritime Authority and used them in private commercial fishing businesses. Sham admitted in a telephone interview that he owns a fishing boat, confirming that he paid about 250,000 Dalasi (about $3,450) to a craftsman in the Tangi area to build it, and that he bought a second boat from the Navy through a legitimate commercial deal supervised by a committee affiliated with the Commander of the Navy, while acknowledging that 50,000 Dalasi (about $690) of its price remained unpaid.
Among the accusations also included what was reported by the Gambia Journal platform, that Sham brought an agricultural tractor as part of a shipment addressed to the Defense Command headquarters, and then changed the name of the recipient on the bill of lading from “The Gambia Armed Forces” to his personal name, which was revealed by a document bearing the signature of an officer with the rank of lieutenant colonel on behalf of the Chief of Staff, the text of which indicates that the amendment is “necessary to ensure the validity of the receipt and customs clearance.” The same platform reports that Sham denied this completely.
Sen also revealed that Cham had arranged for his son Mohammed, who was 16 years old at the time, to be included in a military officer training program in Morocco designated for qualified recruits, in June 2024, when Morocco granted the Gambian Armed Forces three training seats. Sen claimed that the seat for the “officer cadre course” was directed to the commander’s son instead of being given to a recruit who met the conditions, based on what he described as a copy of an appointment letter that falsified history. Sham responded that his son spent four years at the military school in Saint Louis, Senegal, which in his opinion made him a suitable candidate for the program, without directly addressing the fraud allegation.
Resignation in the midst of a wave of public anger
This military scandal does not occur in a vacuum, as it coincided with a widespread wave of protests led by Gambians Against Looted Assets (GALA), which organized in July 2025 one of the largest anti-corruption demonstrations in the modern history of Gambia, raising multiple issues, including a suspicious oil deal with Russia, the Banjul port scandal, and objections to the management of the assets of former President Yahya Jammeh. Confiscation.
In his resignation letter, Sham affirmed that he was “clean before the law” and ready to cooperate with any investigation, and that his decision to step down came out of concern for preserving his reputation and the reputation of the armed forces. On the other hand, the Gambian government has not yet made any official announcement about opening an investigation into the accusations raised.
All accusations, according to what the aforementioned platforms reported, remain within the framework of the prosecution and no judicial ruling has been issued regarding them, while sources within the military institution indicated that senior military leaders tried to convince Sham to remain in his position before he proceeded with his decision.
