By Ndey Sowe
As scabies cases continue to rise in institutional care settings in The Gambia, UNICEF calls for urgent action to protect all children across the country.
In a dispatch shared with this medium on 4 June 2025, UNICEF expressed deep concern over a recent scabies outbreak that affects children in Daara Madina Suwaneh and urged immediate and coordinated action to protect children throughout the whole country.
As of 27 May 2025, the Ministry of Health reported that at least 57 children were diagnosed with scabies, highlighting serious health risks exacerbated by inadequate medical care and poor hygienic conditions. According to UNICEF, the outbreak is directly linked to the unhygienic and overcrowded living conditions of children in their residences, where limited access to water, together with malnutrition and promiscuity among other factors, contributed to the spread of the disease.
UNICEF reaffirms its unwavering commitment to uphold the rights of every child, particularly the most marginalised and vulnerable, after being guided by the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC), and The Gambia’s own child protection frameworks.
According to UNICEF, this latest incident, along with previous tragedies such as the 2021 Bilal Boarding School fire disaster, underscores the urgent need for stronger systemic oversight, regulation and accountability. In line with concluding observations on The Gambia issued by the Committee on the Rights of the Child in February 2025, and the Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children (2009), UNICEF calls for urgent action across sectors and from stakeholders, and urges the Government of The Gambia and partners to:
- Conduct a comprehensive, nationwide assessment and inspection of all child care institutions, including Quranic Schools (Majalis);
- Enforce and monitor compliance with national minimum standards for care facilities and child safeguarding through regular and substantive inspections;
- Promote and invest in family-based and community-based alternatives to institutional care, preventing family separation and facilitating family reintegration;
- Ensure that children in institutional and alternative care settings have adequate and appropriate access to food, nutrition, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), timely information and a comprehensive range of essential services including health care, child protection, education and skills development, while “facilitating the rehabilitation and social reintegration of the children residing within them, to the greatest extent possible” as recommended by the Committee on the Rights of the Child in its Concluding Observations for The Gambia (February 2025); and
- Establish independent, confidential and child-friendly complaint mechanisms for children in institutional and alternative care.
Addressing these issues requires strong multi-sectoral collaboration among all stakeholders from Social Welfare, Child Protection, Education, Health, Nutrition, WASH and Security, as well as the engagement of religious leaders, community members and families. Therefore, UNICEF encourages and stands ready to support the establishment of a multi-sectoral coordination mechanism under the leadership of the Government to ensure coherent rights-based interventions on more suitable forms of alternative care in the country.
“Protecting children is not the responsibility of a single organisation. It requires collective action. We must act now to ensure no child is left in unsafe or unregulated conditions. Children must grow up safe, healthy, and protected in environments where their rights are fully respected and protected,” Nafisa Binte Shafique, the UNICEF Representative in The Gambia, declared.
