In February and March, 8 members of the Royal Gibraltar Regiment (RG), accompanied by a Royal Marine Medic, spent 5 weeks in The Gambia, West Africa, where they provided a ‘Train the Trainer’ (T3) package to 61 Officers & Soldiers of the Gambian Armed Forces (GAF).

The RG’s Short-Term Training Team (STTT) spent five weeks based at the British High Commission in Serrekunda, about 10 kilometres from Gambia’s capital, Banjul.

The RG have historically conducted training in The Gambia on several occasions over the past 19 years, the last time being in 2021. The recent deployments have seen the RG focus on developing the GAF’s ability to train their own soldiers and officers.

The latest deployment saw the team deliver a training package which has up-skilled 52 Soldiers and 9 Officers from across the GAF, with the emphasis being on teaching Gambian instructors to deliver the training themselves.

The knowledge and experience attained by the Gambians will allow them to return to their battalions and deliver more training to a larger audience, thus improving the quality and preparedness of Gambian soldiers and enhance the GAF’s ability to support future UN missions, as well as to improve standards in their own units.

The training for the Soldiers began by focussing on refresher training in such subjects as fieldcraft, the handling of captured persons and first aid training. The Gambian soldiers then learned how to plan, prepare & deliver lessons and develop their ability to review lessons being given by others.

The Officers focused on the wider requirements of a training environment and the skills required to support the delivery of training. The course cumulated in a battle exercise which had been planned and delivered to the Soldiers.

At the end of the course, a closing ceremony was overseen by Brigadier General Torro Jawneh of the Gambian Armed Forces. Certificates and awards for the top students were presented on behalf of the RG training team.

The GAF soldiers on the course will now return to their Battalions ready for around 300 new recruits to pass out of basic training at the GAF Training School and to report to their new Battalions under the tutorship of the newly qualified trainers.