Gambians Mourn Ambassador Fadera

Gambians home and abroad are mourning the sudden death of their country’s Ambassador to the United States of America.

Ambassador Dawda Fadera died in the Gambia today after a brief illness. He was reported to have undergone surgery at Afrimed before being transferred to the Francis Small Teaching Hospital in Banjul.

Mr. Fadera, a native of Kiang Nema in Lower River Region, was a career civil servant. During his more than 30-year career, Mr. Fadera had worked in the Personnel Management Office (PMO) for the bulk of his civil service career. He become Permanent Secretary at the PMO who chaired the National Records Services and the Management Development Institute and was also the Gambia-based contact for the Commonwealth Fund for Technical Cooperation.

In July 2011, Mr. Fadera was dismissed from office by former President Yahya Jammeh. He was reinstated a year later after Jammeh found out the PMO was beset by numerous difficulties.

Like most senior officials who served the Jammeh regime, Mr. Fadera too was arrested and detained in July 2016 after he was accused of corruption by awarding a contract to Dubai-based oil company March Petroleum.

On February 9 2017, Dawda Fadera was appointed Secretary General and Head of Civil Service by President Adama Barrow. Mr. Fadera had umdertaken reforms to eliminate political interference in the Gambia’s Civil Service.

In January 2018, Mr. Fadera was removed from Secretary General and appointed as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the United States.

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