Ten  Gambian delegates to an award  ceremony in Senegal were admitted to hospital after they suffered from a variety   of illnesses.

According to doctors some of the delegates who collapsed  and fainted  were asthmatic and ulcer patients.

 Senegalese medical sources said other delegates  fell ill  because of the water they drank.

The doctors  said the   water did not match with the victims’ system  and that led to many of them to suffer from the unprecedented illnesses.

In other news the Senegalese Embassy in Banjul has been criticized for what is being described as a “diplomatic failure” for not intervening in the standoff between the Gambian delegation to the International Gold Award of the President Award Scheme in Dakar and the Senegalese Custom officers that led to the barring from entering of the former’s furniture and some of their food items.

The two hundred and fifty members of the Gambian delegation who were traveling to the award programme last Thursday were stopped by the Custom officers at the Karang Police Post and told that the furniture which included tables and chairs to be displayed during the award programme and the three bags of sugar had no authenticated entry clearance that warrants their entering into Senegal.

The Custom officers said the clearance from the Senegalese Embassy did not include the furniture and the three bags of sugar.

“We will seize them when you enter with them in the Senegalese territory,” a custom officer warned.

The Custom officers however demanded f 100,000 CFA from the Gambian delegation to allow the furniture and the three bags of sugar to pass, which the delegation refused.

However, after over an hour of the standoff, the Senegalese Embassy in Banjul was contacted for intervention.  An official at the Embassy, identified only as Nyang,  said the letter written to the embassy by the Management of the President Award Scheme does not include the three bags of sugar. Nyang promised to call the Customs post. He said  that the letter indicated only feeding and not sugar.

Meanwhile, up to the time of departure of the Gambian delegation, no call was made.

When asked about the circumstances surrounding the standoff, Pa Muhammed Norman the Programme Coordinator and head of the traveling delegation described the attitude of the Senegalese Custom officers as disappointing and provocative.

He blamed the Senegalese Embassy for what he called the unfortunate incident that lead to the barring of the furniture and the three bags of sugar.

“The mere fact that I mentioned in the letter written to the embassy indicated feedings outlined everything,” he said.

 He added that the Senegalese Embassy in Banjul have giving them all the assurances about the delegation’s “smooth traveling.”

 “What they promised us and what we met on our way were quite different and also after promising to intervene, they did not,” he told journalists traveling with the delegation.

“The bags of sugar are part of the feeding and the furniture are to be displayed during the award, nothing else,” Pa Norman emphasized.

However at Korosma Jamnyajo around midnight, one of the bus driver’s license was seized from him after the officers at the check point said he has no right to drive in Senegal.

The Gambian delegation should be hosted at the Leopold Senghore Stadium but due to the World Cup and African Cup of Nations qualify round that was played last Saturday, they were hosted at the Foire (International Trader Fair Centre).

An enquiry made about the Centre, the security officials in charge told The Independent that some of the standpipes at the center were not used for months.