Hurricane Kanilai Hits Banjul!!!

Massive Communication Destruction!!!!

GAMTEL’S Main Fiber Cable Destroyed By An Unknown Attackers

GAMTEL’S Katim Touray Describes  Incident As A Big Sabotage

By Staff Reporter James Jammeh, Banjul

In what appeared to be a rebellion incursion steadily brewing  in the West African nation of The Gambia, an attempt to disrupt the country’s main telecommunication fiber cable was uncovered Wednesday morning, as unknown individual(s) reportedly destroyed GAMTEL’S main cable thus disrupting transmission network—which covers from Banjul to Basse, the Freedom Newspaper has gathered. This particular cable is situated at Sting corner junction along the Banjul High Way, sources said. Phone communication was paralyzed—thanks to the unknown attack, which is being described by GAMTEL officials as a “sabotage.” Many GAMTEL customers experienced network jam, and interruption in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

A team of GAMTL officials led by the company’s Managing Director Katim Touray were seen on site—who appeared devastated by the incident. There is no immediate information available as to the motives of the attackers—who targeted GAMTEL in their operation to undermine the country’s main telecommunication system.

The GAMTEL MD Katim Touray wants the National Intelligence Agency to help track the perpetrators of the this ugly incident, which in Touray's own views is an act of “ vandalism.”   He told reporters that the person(s) behind the incident after destroying the cable, they dumped the wires on the road.

A team of GAMTEL engineers were able to put the system partly back online after hours of frantic efforts to restore the breakdown communication. They have partly succeeded in restoring part of the problem, but are still on site trying to figure out  how to solve this large destruction to public communication.

Mr. Touray said the communication blackout does not only affect GAMTEL, but the entire country—most importantly its customers. He accuses the perpetrators of trying to sabotage GAMTEL, and The Gambia as a nation.

It is not yet clear as to how much loss GAMTEL suffered as a result of the incident, but Mr. Touray said the loss was substantial—given the fact that this was one of their main fiber optic communication line.

Sulayman Kujabi, a senior transmission manager with GAMTEL said it would take some time before communication would be fully restored. Kujabi told reporters that this was the first time in history that GAMTEL has been confronted with such an incident. He said it requires a lot of work to get the problem fixed.

While confusion, and uncertainty gripped GAMTEL staffers, Sulayman Gaye, an official of the institution accuses the perpetrators of trying to undermine the country’s developmental projects. He said the attackers lacked respect for the country, and the Government of the day. He appealed to the relevant authorities to help investigate, and bring perpetrators to book without any further delays.

Many here described the incident as “Hurricane Kanilai.”  The incident has significantly caused a massive  destruction to public property. GAMTEL has been reduced to ground zero. Company officials appeared worried, and devastated by the “Hurricane Kanilai” incident.

A security analyst familiar with rebellion incursion activities on the African region said the Wednesday incident appeared to be a rebellion act. The analyst said rebels might be "civilians, or active serving members of the military, who are increasingly disenchanted with the system."

According to the analyst, who specialized on conflict resolution said “ such attacks” could delegitimize the existing government, as rebels always want to assert that they are in control of given country. The analyst warns that there is bound to be further attacks, as the situation appears that these people “ belonged to an organized crime group—whose objective(s) is yet to be known.

President Jammeh has not yet publicly commented on the incident. The destruction of the GAMTEL fiber cable followed the sacking of  top security chiefs, including the Inspector General of police Essa Badjie. Mr. Badjie, and others are currently detained at the Mile Two Maximum Prisons. No reason was advanced for their sacking and subsequent detention.