Exhausted university students in The Gambia have launched sustained protests over chronic transport shortages and squalid campus amenities, warning that accessing higher education has degenerated into a perilous daily ordeal.
The demonstrations, centred on the country's flagship tertiary institution, the University of The Gambia, have laid bare the profound logistical hurdles confronting thousands of young Gambians attempting to better their prospects in one of West Africa's poorest nations. Protesters describe the daily commute as a brutal contest for survival, with public infrastructure failing to support an expanding student cohort.
A perilous scramble at dawn
For most undergraduates, the academic day begins well before sunrise at crowded transport depots, Al Jazeera reported. With no reliable university-run transport network, students must compete with commuters for seats in dilapidated commercial minivans, locally known as gelli-gellis, or negotiate informal shared taxis.
Fares have surged amid broader inflationary pressures across West Africa, with daily round trips often costing between $3 and $5 AUD—a ruinous sum in a country where the minimum monthly wage hovers below $100 AUD. Those unable to pay are routinely left behind, resulting in chronic absenteeism and missed examinations.
Al Jazeera reported that the chaotic scramble for transport frequently descends into physical scuffles at major junctions. Female students face acute vulnerabilities, often stranded after dark at unlit bus stops or forced to hitchhike along isolated highways to reach home.
Campus relocation compounds isolation
The crisis has intensified following the gradual transfer of faculties to the university’s new flagship campus at Faraba Banta, situated roughly 50 kilometres outside the capital, Banjul. While designed to modernise the nation's tertiary sector, the semi-rural location has dramatically lengthened travel times without a commensurate increase in public transport routes.
Students arriving at the rural facility report that the physical infrastructure remains fundamentally incomplete. Lectures are frequently disrupted by erratic electricity supplies, non-existent Wi-Fi, and a lack of clean running water in basic sanitation facilities. During the stifling heat of the dry season, overcrowded lecture halls without working ventilation have left students unable to concentrate.
Student representatives have accused university administrators and the Ministry of Higher Education of poor planning, arguing that moving classes to an isolated site before securing dedicated transport corridors was grossly irresponsible.
Government pressed for systemic relief
The student union has demanded a subsidised, university-managed bus fleet, coupled with an immediate moratorium on in-person attendance policies until transport logistics are stabilised. While education authorities have acknowledged the shortages and promised to negotiate with the national transport enterprise, similar assurances have stalled in the past due to budgetary constraints.
Education specialists warn that unless the government prioritises basic student welfare, the nation risks sabotaging its own economic modernisation agenda. In a country where higher education is seen as the primary pathway out of intergenerational poverty, the daily barrier to entering a lecture hall remains, for many, an insurmountable obstacle.