It is approaching dusk in Tanji. A dim sliver of orange-coloured sun appears as though it is falling into the ocean. A heavy stench of fish and salt water blends into the thick air as smoke from the fish dryers billows overhead. Hundreds of women and men, waiting for the day’s catch, line the soaked shoreline with buckets of various sizes.
Waiting among them is a man in military camouflage. He is ex-Sergeant Modou Saine, former personal assistant to the country’s Chief of Defence Staff (CDS). Part of Saine’s task was to join a team of civilians and a navy officer to manage a boat belonging to the army chief, Mamat Cham—a story that illustrates how military hierarchy can blur the lines between national duty and private commercial enterprise.
“At any one time, there was a serving navy officer on it. The first to go out at sea for him was Petty Officer Ebrima Joof, and the second was Francis Mendy. And his personal assistant in the military (Modou Saine) helped to collect and remit the money for him,” said a soldier close to CDS’s office. Both Joof and Mendy confirmed working on the boats via a phone call on May 25 and May 22, respectively. On May 29, while this story was being reviewed for publication, part of the evidence leaked online, arousing significant public pressure, leading to Cham’s resignation.
Photographs obtained by DUBAWA showing cash proceeds from the CDS’s fishing boat. A former aide confirmed that catches were sold and daily records of proceeds shared with the CDS.
A dramatic return after a 20–year absence
Cham is a survivor, one who has had his fair share of the good and ugly in public service. When young officers seized power from the democratically elected Dawda Kairaba Jawara in July 1994, he was a captain in the army. Cham maintained a suspicious relationship with the coupists and senior officers and was appointed to the military cabinet as a trade minister. This was short-lived, as he was sacked on July 27, only five days after the coup, arrested, tortured, and subjected to mock executions.
Public records show he was involved in the private security business until President Adama Barrow came to power in 2017. Ex-president Yahya Jammeh was believed to have had significant control over the Gambian army, a suspicion the new president’s administration shared upon taking office. Observers say they reacted by appointing people they believed would be loyal to them to neutralise any threat that might have come from Jammeh’s loyalists.
Cham benefited from this fear when he was reinstated after a 20–year absence from service in 2017. During his time away, he worked at the Banjul Ports as deputy chief of security. He was reportedly sacked on Jammeh’s orders. It is unclear what he was doing until 2014, when he established a private security firm. “He suffered a lot,” said a senior security officer familiar with his history.
In 2017, with the coming into power of Barrow, his fortunes turned around. He was reinstated, and with it came a generous promotion from Captain to Brigadier General, jumping three senior ranks: Major, Lieutenant Colonel, and Colonel.
“Cham has not done senior military career courses, including senior division course (PSC) and war college. Not just that, he has been out of the job for about 20 years. He was out of touch with the military,” said Sulayman Suwareh, a former military intelligence officer in Gambia, who now lives in the UK.
“It is just that he and Barrow used to play draughts together. During the political impasse, he went to stay with him in Yarambamba to assist the security details of the president-elect. That is how he got back into the military.”
Since his return, Cham has been anything but professional in his conduct as the Brigadier General. Investigations into the activities of Cham make for a grim story of Gambia’s military.
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Documents intercepted by DUBAWA and interactions with military sources, and photographs indicate that Gambia’s Chief of Defense Staff, Mamat Cham, has been operating a commercial fishing boat — crewed in part by active-duty naval personnel — that was originally confiscated from migrant smugglers and subsequently obtained from the navy.
This venture, along with his ownership of a private security firm, directly violates military regulations designed to prevent conflicts of interest and corruption.
The army chief faces further scrutiny over nepotism and abuse of privilege, including fast-tracking his underage son into military training and diverting army food supplies to his private residence
How he allegedly acquired a fishing boat
A handover document detailing a D250,000 transaction where Lt Cdr Ramou Njie of the Gambia Naval Command transfers a canoe to the Chief of Defence Staff, Lt Gen Mamat OA Cham.
The records reviewed by DUBAWA show that two boats, both allegedly confiscated from migrant smugglers, were transferred from the navy to the CDS. The first boat, which was procured in 2024, is currently out of service and under maintenance on Tanji Beach, the landing site where his boats operate from.
The second boat was handed to him on February 20, this year, by Navy Commander Ramou Njie, at a fee of D250,000 on a part-credit basis. At the time of the handover, records show the CDS paid 40% of the fee, or D100,000. He reportedly acquired a 60-horsepower engine from the same institution. The engine was handed to him through his former personal assistant, Saine, on November 28, 2025. The verified records show the army chief obtained a licence for the boat from the Gambia Maritime Administration on March 10, 2026.
A handwritten note indicating a transaction involving Modou Saine, a former personal assistant to the army chief Cham, and the Gambia Navy. The Navy reportedly handed over a 60-horsepower engine for use by the CDS’s fishing boat.
His first boat, which is currently under maintenance, was reportedly being operated by a serving Navy Petty Officer (PO Joof). The more recent acquisition is being operated by a Senegalese national captain. However, there is a Navy officer, Francis Mendy, on board the boat who our sources said was placed there in March this year to look out for the CDS’s interests.
Multiple military sources identified PO Joof as having operated the CDS’s first fishing boat. Joof was photographed at Tanji Fish Landing Site near the Petrol Station in 2025 alongside fishing equipment.
A number of military officers informed DUBAWA that a now-former soldier, Sergeant Modou Saine, who was the personal assistant to the CDS, also used to sell fish for him, take records of catches and send him daily records. Saine had issues with the army chief in April this year and requested to be discharged from the military shortly after mistrust developed between the two.
Saine, who makes multiple allegations of corruption against his former boss, confirmed taking records of catches, selling fish and sharing daily records with his former boss.
A senior military officer who did not want to be named told DUBAWA that the CDS’s commercial activities violate the armed forces’ own regulations. “It is not only a violation that the CDS is involved in business, but this is also a conflict of interest,” the officer said.
“… All arrests of illegal fishing by the Department of Fisheries are enforced by the army. The CDS therefore holds substantial influence, which makes it difficult to police its own boats for fishing violations.”
In business against military regulation
The records obtained by DUBAWA show the army chief is operating two businesses, something proscribed by the military’s terms and conditions of service. The regulation, known popularly among soldiers by its acronym, TACOS, prevents soldiers and officers, including the CDS, from engaging in commercial business or any position that could conflict with their official functions.
“An officer shall not engage in any private business or professional activity nor shall he/she have any direct or indirect financial interest which would place him/her in a position where there is conflict between his/her private interest and the interest of the Republic of The Gambia, particularly those related to his/her duties and responsibilities as military personnel,” states Section 4 of TACOS.
However, the army chief owns and operates a fishing boat, the second such vessel in three years, named after his wife, Amie Secka.
A collection of three pictures showing a letter from the Ministry of Interior to Trustee’s director, Cham; a search result showing shareholders of Trustee security and a picture showing the badge of a serving security officer of Trustee on duty in Banjul.
He also owns a majority share in a little-known private security firm called Trustee Security Services Ltd, with the remaining shares distributed among his daughter and two in-laws, records at the company registry show. Trustee was registered in April 2014. The tax record of the security company shows it last paid corporate tax—D27,877—in 2017. However, the company paid D25,000 as spectrum fees for the use of a radio frequency charged by the Public Utility and Regulatory Authority but collected by the Gambia Revenue Authority in 2025. In May this year, DUBAWA found one of its personnel guarding the Bloom Bank branch in Banjul, near McCarthy Square.
In March 2025, the Interior Ministry—with whose minister he sits on the National Security Council, the highest security decision-making body in the country—flagged his security outfit for its lack of compliance with Section 13 (1) of the Private Security Companies Act.
In a letter addressed to the Trustee’s director, who is the CDS himself, the Interior Ministry said the company had failed to apply for a renewal of its licence, and “warned” it to comply or face closure by April 15, 2025. Our request for information on the status of the Trustee’s compliance, sent to the Ministry of Interior on May 6, went unanswered until the time of this publication.
Hiring the CDS’s underage son in violation of regulation
Prior to the enactment of the Children’s Act in 2005, Section 23 (2) of the Gambia Armed Forces Act allowed for the recruitment of children under eighteen, with parental consent. However, the enactment of the Children’s Act deleted Section 23 (2) from the GAF Act, proscribing the recruitment of children under eighteen into the military. This is also reflected in Section 02.03 of the terms and conditions of the GAF, TACOS, stipulating a minimum enlistment age of 18 years for recruitment as a cadet.
A collection of four pictures showing Muhammed Cham’s letter of appointment for recruitment, his tax identification certificates, passport enrollment receipts and letter of nomination for a cadet course in Morocco.
In October 2023, when Cham was the deputy CDS, the military recruited his teenage son, who was only 16 years and 8 months old, over a year short of the required age for military recruitment. The birth certificate, tax registration biodata, and passports of Mahammed Cham (sometimes spelt Muhammad Cham) show he was born on February 21, 2007.
The records from the military signed by Col. Yorro NA Jallow show he was enrolled on October 2, 2023, only a few days before his father was promoted from Deputy Chief of Defence Staff to Chief of Defence Staff of the Armed Forces.
Only nine months later, when Mamat was now CDS, his teenage son was selected again for a cadet course in Morocco when he was 17, against Section 02.03 of TACOS, which requires all cadet candidates to be at least 18 before selection or commencement of military training.
The internal military records show he was approved for an “officer cadet training” in Morocco in July 2024, about ten months after the elder Cham’s appointment.
Amie’s loan at the credit union
Internal records reviewed by DUBAWA indicate that in September 2025, the GAF credit union issued a loan of D1 million to Amie Secka, the CDS’s wife. Three military officers familiar with the credit union’s lending policy told DUBAWA that the CDS, which acted as guarantor, did not meet the policy’s requirements for guarantor eligibility.
A picture of a cheque drawn for Amie Secka from the GAF credit union and an application form she filled with CDS Cham’s details as a guarantor.
The CDS himself, whose savings, the records show, were D144,829, has a loan balance of D300,000, or at least 52% in deficit.
The GAF credit union policy allows a loan portfolio of only three times one’s savings, guaranteed by someone whose savings are at least one-third of the amount. Section Z of the policy only allows guarantors to withdraw “not more than 30 per cent of their savings.”
“Based on the loan Cham owed, and the savings he has at the credit union, he is not qualified to guarantee his wife a loan of one million,” said a senior officer familiar with the army’s credit policy.
A picture of the credit union policy of the Gambia Armed Forces
The million-dalasi loan required a board approval, which was chaired by the commander of the army, Brigadier General Sait Njie.
“A lot of the soldiers do not want to save their money with the credit union. It is very difficult for them to have access to their money. Sometimes, the army used their savings to pre–finance some undertakings,” said a senior soldier who does not want to be named. “This is an abuse of privilege by the CDS.”
Abuse of privileges
A number of senior officers who spoke to DUBAWA on condition of anonymity said there is a significant backlog regarding the disbursement of course allowances in the military. The delay reportedly created financial strain for those who had completed professional training under the expectation of reimbursement.
While personnel wait for those allowances, the distribution of discretionary privileges among the military’s top echelon has come under scrutiny.
The leaked ordnance logs from Yundum Barracks, reviewed by DUBAWA , record food items dispatched to the CDS’s private residence on multiple occasions. The ordnance store is where rations to feed soldiers on duty are kept. Military sources said supplies were also used to feed the Gambia Armed Forces Engineers who were taken to work at his compound in Kerr Mbuguma, a small settlement located within the Kerewan District in the North Bank Region.
A collection of four invoices issued to CDS from the military food store in Yundum Barracks.
Sources described the practice as having ‘no legal basis’ and as ‘morally reprehensible,’ though they acknowledged similar diversions occurred under previous commands.
On May 15, 2026, DUBAWA delivered a letter to the office of the Chief of Defence Staff demanding answers to issues covering the fishing boat, Trustee Security, the recruitment of his son into the army, the credit union loan for his wife, and the alleged diversion of the military’s food rations to his private residence.
No response was received until the time of publication. In the wake of the leaks on social media and his subsequent resignation, the former army chief denied any wrongdoing and said he is willing to cooperate with any investigation into his conduct while in office. The President, who accepted his resignation and appointed his deputy as Chief of Defence Staff, has not mentioned any inquiry into his alleged wrongdoing.
A separate request sent to the Ministry of Interior on 6 May regarding the compliance status of Trustee Security also went unanswered. The requests for comment sent to Col. Jallow—the military officer who signed the appointment letter for the army chief’s son—and Fara Jobe, the commanding officer of the naval fleet in Banjul, went unanswered.
THE END