Music of the Gambia for an international competition to produce an anthem (and flag) before independence from the United Kingdom in 1965. The Gambia, the smallest country in mainland Africa, is an independent coastal state along the River Gambia. It gained its separate identity as a colony of the United Kingdom while Senegal was a colony of France, but the two countries' traditional music are very much intertwined. Among Gambia's people, who together number some 1.728 million (2010), 42% are Mandinka, 18% Fula, 16% Wolof\Serer, 10% Jola and 9% Soninke, the remainder being 4% other African and 1% non-African (2003). 63% of Gambians live
ECOWAS military intervention in the Gambia ECOWAS military intervention in the Gambia The ECOWAS military intervention in the Gambia or the ECOWAS Mission in The Gambia (abbreviated ECOMIG) – code-named Operation Restore Democracy – is an ongoing military intervention in the Gambia by several West African countries. The intervention was launched to resolve a breakdown of internal order in the government of the Gambia that resulted from a dispute over the country's presidency. The dispute had led to a constitutional crisis in the country. The intervention began in January 2017, and in June 2017, the term of the ECOWAS military mission was extended by a year.