According to Presidential sources, President Bio who is accompanied by First Lady Fatima Bio is on a two-day visit geared towards strengthening and deepening bilateral relations between the two sister
countries.
The two leaders are scheduled to hold a joint press conference at State House in Banjul on Wednesday, February 20. Presidential sources told APA in Freetown that Bio’s visit is in honor
of an invitation extended by his Gambian counterpart, Adama Barrow.
Mr Barrow in April 2017 visited Freetown as part of a thank you tour following the peaceful resolution of his country’s electoral crisis. Sierra Leone’s former President, Ernest Bai Koroma, was a leading player in the resolution of that crisis.
Gambia and Sierra Leone share a long history of political ties, stemming from the colonial period when the same British governors presided over the affairs of both countries.
Before the mid-1990s when Gambia first established its university, most Gambians sought university education in Sierra Leone.
Today there are thousands of Gambians involved in Sierra Leone’s mining sector, particularly diamond, mainly as dealers.
Sierra Leone’s First Lady, Fatima Jabbi-Bio has a Gambian parentage.