{"id":92438,"date":"2025-12-21T16:29:42","date_gmt":"2025-12-21T16:29:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/uncategorized\/mayor-bensouda-on-youth-crime-and-migration-issues"},"modified":"2025-12-21T17:28:37","modified_gmt":"2025-12-21T17:28:37","slug":"mayor-bensouda-on-youth-crime-and-migration-issues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/mayor-bensouda-on-youth-crime-and-migration-issues","title":{"rendered":"Mayor Bensouda on Youth Crime and Migration Issues"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Gambia. <\/strong><\/span><b>Talib Ahmed Bensouda, Mayor of the Kanifing Municipal Council and a senior member of the United Movement for Change (UMC), stated in a recent interview that a lack of government support is driving many Gambian youths into criminal activity or prompting them to seek opportunities abroad through irregular migration.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Speaking on the Dialectic Space podcast with Ebrima Sonko, Bensouda described the situation as a consequence of systemic neglect. \u201cThere is no support, I mean, there is no help, so the youths are traumatized. Many of them face two options: either you go into criminality, or you leave and go \u2018back way.\u2019 For the majority of youths, that\u2019s the reality,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Bensouda highlighted the difficulties young Gambians face in accessing education and meaningful employment. \u201cVery few youths are going to school, graduating, and finding meaningful employment or gainful employment, and the government has not focused on how to get youths engaged in fundamental sectors, vital sectors such as agriculture, blue-collar jobs, and apprenticeships,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>The mayor also called for broader structural reforms, citing the need for constitutional reform as a foundation for meaningful change. \u201cGambians wanted meaningful, fundamental, transformative change, and the only way to begin that is to attack what was wrong with Gambia, and that is the fundamentals; one of the things was constitutional reform,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Bensouda criticized the administration of President Adama Barrow for failing to implement promised reforms, particularly in the civil service and security sectors. He argued that the lack of progress on these critical areas has left the country grappling with persistent challenges and stressed that future governments must prioritize addressing them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd our government will come in and try to do projects very quickly for political expediency. So one must understand that the fundamentals must be fixed first before you can face the problems,\u201d Bensouda said.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Gambia<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Gambia. Talib Ahmed Bensouda, Mayor of the Kanifing Municipal Council and a senior member of the United Movement for Change (UMC), stated in a recent interview that a lack of government support is driving many Gambian youths into criminal activity or prompting them to seek opportunities abroad through irregular migration. Speaking on the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":92436,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12],"tags":[260],"class_list":["post-92438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-gambia"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Mayor Bensouda on Youth Crime and Migration Issues - Gambia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Talib Ahmed Bensouda, Mayor of the Kanifing Municipal Council and a senior member of the United Movement for Change ( ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/mayor-bensouda-on-youth-crime-and-migration-issues\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mayor Bensouda on Youth Crime and Migration Issues\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Talib Ahmed Bensouda, Mayor of the Kanifing Municipal Council and a senior member of the United Movement for Change ( ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/mayor-bensouda-on-youth-crime-and-migration-issues\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Gambia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-12-21T16:29:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-12-21T17:28:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2025\/12\/sm_1766325197.143737.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"554\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/mayor-bensouda-on-youth-crime-and-migration-issues#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/mayor-bensouda-on-youth-crime-and-migration-issues\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Mayor Bensouda on Youth Crime and Migration Issues\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-12-21T16:29:42+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-12-21T17:28:37+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/mayor-bensouda-on-youth-crime-and-migration-issues\"},\"wordCount\":326,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/mayor-bensouda-on-youth-crime-and-migration-issues#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2025\/12\/sm_1766325197.143737.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Gambia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/mayor-bensouda-on-youth-crime-and-migration-issues#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/mayor-bensouda-on-youth-crime-and-migration-issues\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/mayor-bensouda-on-youth-crime-and-migration-issues\",\"name\":\"Mayor Bensouda on Youth Crime and Migration Issues - Gambia\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/mayor-bensouda-on-youth-crime-and-migration-issues#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/mayor-bensouda-on-youth-crime-and-migration-issues#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2025\/12\/sm_1766325197.143737.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-12-21T16:29:42+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-12-21T17:28:37+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"Talib Ahmed Bensouda, Mayor of the Kanifing Municipal Council and a senior member of the United Movement for Change ( ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/mayor-bensouda-on-youth-crime-and-migration-issues#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/mayor-bensouda-on-youth-crime-and-migration-issues\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/mayor-bensouda-on-youth-crime-and-migration-issues#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2025\/12\/sm_1766325197.143737.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2025\/12\/sm_1766325197.143737.jpg\",\"width\":1024,\"height\":554,\"caption\":\"Mayor Bensouda on Youth Crime and Migration Issues\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/mayor-bensouda-on-youth-crime-and-migration-issues#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Mayor Bensouda on Youth Crime and Migration Issues\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/\",\"name\":\"Gambia\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"cfeditoren\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Mayor Bensouda on Youth Crime and Migration Issues - Gambia","description":"Talib Ahmed Bensouda, Mayor of the Kanifing Municipal Council and a senior member of the United Movement for Change ( ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/mayor-bensouda-on-youth-crime-and-migration-issues","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Mayor Bensouda on Youth Crime and Migration Issues","og_description":"Talib Ahmed Bensouda, Mayor of the Kanifing Municipal Council and a senior member of the United Movement for Change ( ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/mayor-bensouda-on-youth-crime-and-migration-issues","og_site_name":"Gambia","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa","article_published_time":"2025-12-21T16:29:42+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-12-21T17:28:37+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1024,"height":554,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2025\/12\/sm_1766325197.143737.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/mayor-bensouda-on-youth-crime-and-migration-issues#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/mayor-bensouda-on-youth-crime-and-migration-issues"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"Mayor Bensouda on Youth Crime and Migration Issues","datePublished":"2025-12-21T16:29:42+00:00","dateModified":"2025-12-21T17:28:37+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/mayor-bensouda-on-youth-crime-and-migration-issues"},"wordCount":326,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/mayor-bensouda-on-youth-crime-and-migration-issues#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2025\/12\/sm_1766325197.143737.jpg","keywords":["Gambia"],"articleSection":["all news","policy"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/mayor-bensouda-on-youth-crime-and-migration-issues#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/mayor-bensouda-on-youth-crime-and-migration-issues","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/mayor-bensouda-on-youth-crime-and-migration-issues","name":"Mayor Bensouda on Youth Crime and Migration Issues - Gambia","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/mayor-bensouda-on-youth-crime-and-migration-issues#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/mayor-bensouda-on-youth-crime-and-migration-issues#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2025\/12\/sm_1766325197.143737.jpg","datePublished":"2025-12-21T16:29:42+00:00","dateModified":"2025-12-21T17:28:37+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"Talib Ahmed Bensouda, Mayor of the Kanifing Municipal Council and a senior member of the United Movement for Change ( ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/mayor-bensouda-on-youth-crime-and-migration-issues#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/mayor-bensouda-on-youth-crime-and-migration-issues"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/mayor-bensouda-on-youth-crime-and-migration-issues#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2025\/12\/sm_1766325197.143737.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2025\/12\/sm_1766325197.143737.jpg","width":1024,"height":554,"caption":"Mayor Bensouda on Youth Crime and Migration Issues"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/mayor-bensouda-on-youth-crime-and-migration-issues#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Mayor Bensouda on Youth Crime and Migration Issues"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/","name":"Gambia","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"cfeditoren"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}