Gambia's Barrow Declares Power Crisis an Emergency After Blackout Protests

President Adama Barrow has declared The Gambia's electricity shortages a state of emergency and a "national security issue", after rolling blackouts lasting up to 48 hours set off violent protests in and around the capital, Banjul.

Demonstrators burned tyres and erected roadblocks overnight from Monday 7 to Tuesday 8 September. Some chanted for the president to go, and crowds tried to march towards his residence. Police fired tear gas to disperse gatherings, including in the Westfield area near the headquarters of the state utility, the National Water and Electricity Company (NAWEC).

How the lights went out

The outages began in June and have deepened through the hot season, when demand for fans, air conditioning and refrigeration peaks. The Gambia depends in part on electricity imported from its neighbours, Senegal and Guinea, and those imports have fallen. Officials have pointed to lower seasonal rainfall and technical faults on the import lines as reasons for the shortfall.

NAWEC's managing director, Gallo Saidy, has blamed climate change and the war in the Middle East, alongside surging demand during high temperatures and constraints on imports. The explanation has done little to satisfy residents who have spent weeks without reliable power.

Visiting NAWEC's Brikama power station on Tuesday, Barrow acknowledged flaws in the government's planning and maintenance of generation. In a national address he spoke directly to the daily toll on households, saying "the fans have stopped turning, children work in the dark", and promised that the situation would improve.

The promised fixes

24 megawatts of new generating capacity, to be installed by the end of October.
A 50-megawatt solar plant at Soma, where the contract has been awarded and the company is mobilising resources to begin work.
A commitment that electricity supply will improve by the end of October.
An emergency declaration intended to fast-track the government's response.

Why it matters

The timing is politically acute. Barrow is seeking a third term in a presidential election due in December, and the protests have put daily hardship at the centre of the campaign. Chants calling for his departure were a pointed reminder that an incumbent who came to power promising change is now being judged on basic services.

The human cost of the cuts is broad. Food spoils without refrigeration, small businesses that cannot afford generators lose trade, and prolonged heat without fans is dangerous for the elderly, infants and the sick. Families have been forced to throw away stale food and children to study by candlelight or phone torch, which is the picture the president himself painted.

By declaring an emergency and naming a date, Barrow has raised the stakes for himself. Voters will be able to judge by the end of October whether the promised capacity has arrived. A 24-megawatt unit would be a meaningful addition to a small grid, but it would not on its own end reliance on imports that have proved unreliable this year.

The crisis also exposes a regional vulnerability. West African countries have been building cross-border transmission links to share power, but this summer shows how quickly a shortfall in one country can pass down the line to its neighbours.

Outlook

In the short term, the government's task is to restore enough supply to calm the streets before the new generation arrives. The security forces have contained the protests for now, but further long outages during the heat would test that. Over the longer term, whether the solar plant at Soma and other domestic projects are delivered will decide if The Gambia can reduce its exposure to supply problems beyond its borders.

With the election only months away, Barrow's opponents are almost certain to keep the blackouts at the front of the debate, and the end-of-October deadline has now become a campaign benchmark of the president's own making.

Image: Bart van Poll via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0