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 FARAFENNI, Gambia,
May 7 (Reuters) -
Gambia's president
threatened on Wednesday
to lock up traders who
sold rice at more than
the going rate in an
effort to stop them
profiteering from high
world food prices.
Yahya Jammeh, who has
brooked little dissent
since he seized power in
mainland Africa's
smallest country in a
1994 military coup, said
he had reached a deal
with rice importers to
sell rice at a maximum
of 800 dalasi ($39) per
sack.
"I will use electric
broom or send
businessmen to jail,
those who are bent on
selling rice at 1,000
dalasi," Jammeh told
residents in the
northern town of
Farafenni, some 120 km
(75 miles) inland from
the coastal capital
Banjul.
"If anyone is selling
a bag of rice at 900
dalasi, take him to
police, it is unlawful,"
Jammeh said.
"Electric broom" is a
phrase sometimes used in
Gambia to describe
Jammeh's propensity to
fire officials at will.
Jammeh has previously
threatened to lock up
journalists and shut
down their newspapers if
he felt he had good
reason.
Rising world prices
for staple food
commodities such as rice
and maize have caused
unrest in some African
countries, and some
governments have accused
traders of cashing in on
so-called "agflation" to
gouge ever higher prices
from poor customers.
A group of rice
importers in Gambia said
in a statement on
Wednesday they were
cooperating with the
authorities to ensure
regular imports and
reasonable retail
prices.
"Rice stocks are
plentiful in the country
and more quantities are
expected. Please refrain
from panic buying as
this is unnecessary,"
the importers said.
"We shall spare no
effort to keep the
prices at the lowest
possible levels."
Jammeh, who is making
an annual 10-day tour of
the former British
colony, a thin sliver of
land which stretches
into French-speaking
Senegal, urged his
people to increase their
farming output to
counter the problem of
high world prices.
Gambia has few major
sources of hard currency
apart from European
package tourists,
growing peanuts and
fishing, and most of its
people depend on
subsistence farming to
survive.
Nevertheless, Jammeh
has assured his
countrymen in the past
that the country has
commercially viable
reserves of oil, uranium
and other valuable
minerals, and has vowed
to transform the quiet
backwater into Africa's
hi-tech "silicon
valley".
Source
Reuters
Wed 7 May 2008, 18:14
GMT
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