By Tabora Bojang
Minors residing at Daara Medina Suwaneh, an Islamic boarding school near Brufut Heights, are to be relocated to Jambanjelly today.
In recent days, immigration officers in collaboration with public health and law enforcement authorities, launched a medical response following disturbing health conditions observed on minors residing in the school. Medical assessments conducted by health officials from Sukuta and Brufut alongside personnel from the Epidemiology and Disease Control Unit of the Ministry of Health confirmed that 57 of a total of 101 minors inspected were suffering from scabies, a highly contagious skin disease caused by parasitic mites and aggravated by poor hygiene and overcrowded living conditions.
Among those affected are 35 Gambians, 17 Senegalese, and 5 Bissau-Guineans. Authorities have since flagged the dire state of the living quarters, emphasising that the school’s cramped and unsanitary environment not only endangered the health of the children but also facilitated the rapid spread of infections.
According to officials on the ground, public health officers who have since taken over the case, administering treatment and coordinating further responses have declared the facility unfit for the children and a decision was taken to relocate them.
“The committee of health practitioners, public health officials, and the Ministry of Gender and Children will relocate the children to another facility in Jambanjelly Friday morning. The place [Medina Suwaneh boarding school] is unfit for purpose,” the official explained.
