In a major speech at the 69th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Thursday evening, President Jammeh faulted the West over the deaths of thousands of African migrants among them at least 500 Gambians who perished in tragic boat mishaps in waters between Libya and southern Italy.
He stated: “I want to call the attention of the [UN General Assembly] and the UN Security Council to the very frequent and mysterious sinking, capsizing… of boats carrying mostly black African migrants looking for greener pastures in the West only to end up in body bags on European shores. Those countries that pretend to love Africans so much that they are always preaching to African leaders good governance, the rule of law and respect for human life and rights have been apparently quiet about the very dangerous, racist and inhumane behaviour of deliberately causing boats carrying Black Africans to sink only to select a few lucky ones to be rescued and sent to concentration camps, called asylum seekers camps. These camps are as bad as Nazi concentration camps and nobody, country or human rights institution has ever raised the alarm to this genocide in the 21st century. If earlier Africans that received the European explorers before colonialism treated them the same way, Africa would not have been colonised for 400 years. The European explorers were nothing short of people seeking greener pastures for their fellow Europeans, as Europe then had turned into brown pastures.
“After 400 years of colonial looting and misrule, Africa is reduced from green to brown pasture due to overgrazing. Now African explorers are not only unwelcome but are greeted with instant death. The UN must conduct a full and impartial investigation into this man-made sinking, capsizing of these boats carrying young Africans to Europe. If these boats are able to cross the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea only to sink on European coasts, we must find out what deadly mysterious force exists on the European Mediterranean coasts that causes boats carrying young Africans to disintegrate and sink upon arrival. Racism, greed and hate can only breed hatred, violence and disastrous confrontation between races. We African leaders would stand up together, I hope, to protect these young Africans from mass murder on European coasts. I hereby call on the UN to commission such an investigation as a matter of priority and urgency in order to avert a major racial confrontation. Out of hundreds of European explorers to The Gambia in those days, only one died on the River Gambia over a span of 400 years. Today, over a five-year period more than 500 young Gambians have died on European coasts. Enough is enough and the UN must intervene and intervene quickly or else we will all live to regret our failure to take appropriate action at the right time.”
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