Residents of the Gambian capital took to the streets after a 24-hour electricity cut left parts of the city without power, in a candle-lit demonstration that underscored growing anger over chronic outages.
The protest was led by Banjul North lawmaker Modou Lamin Bah. Crowds chanted “Bring back power, we are tired of the darkness” and “Banjulians deserve better” as households and businesses across the Greater Banjul Area remained without supply from morning onward.
The outage is the latest in a long-running energy crisis that has become a flashpoint ahead of The Gambia’s presidential election in December. President Adama Barrow recently said his government was working to ease shortages and announced that three generators were being imported to bolster the grid.
Officials have pointed to investments in the National Water and Electricity Company (NAWEC), while acknowledging persistent shortfalls.
Opposition figures say those steps have not been enough. At a rally in Brikama on Sunday, Coalition 2026 flagbearer Talib Ahmed Bensouda accused Barrow of failing to fix the problem since taking office in 2017. He called for NAWEC to be liberalized and eventually sold to operators he argued could run it more efficiently.
For many in Banjul, the political debate is secondary to daily disruption. Businesses lose hours of trade; families sit in the dark. The protest reflected a wider public demand for reliable electricity in a country where power cuts have become a regular feature of urban life.
The government continues to defend its energy programme. Critics say repeated blackouts show the gap between promised upgrades and what residents experience when the lights go out.
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