Gambiaj.com – (BANJUL, The Gambia) – President Adama Barrow’s government has secured a significant legal victory on the international stage after a World Bank arbitration committee in London threw out an award of approximately $33.2 million (USD) that had been made against The Gambia in a long-running dispute over a shrimp farm seized during the Jammeh era.
The ruling, delivered on 17 July 2026 by an Annulment Committee of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), brings to a close a legal battle that has stretched back more than a decade and touched three different presidencies.
Roots of the Dispute
The case traces back to 3 June 2015, when former President Yahya Jammeh’s government took over a shrimp farming and processing operation run by Western African Aquaculture Ltd in the West Coast villages of Pirang and Sanyang.
The company’s owners, Swedish national Kurt Lennart Hansson and his wife Martje Bolt Hansson, an Australian national, saw their investment expropriated without the compensation international investment law requires.
Efforts to resolve the matter through negotiation after the change of government in 2017 did not succeed, and in 2018 the investors took their case to ICSID, the World Bank-affiliated body that adjudicates disputes between states and foreign investors.
After nearly six years of proceedings, an ICSID tribunal ruled in March 2024 that the Jammeh-era expropriation had been unlawful and ordered The Gambia to pay damages running into tens of millions of dollars, along with accrued interest, a sum that would have placed real strain on the national budget.
Government Pushes Back
According to a statement from the State House, when Attorney General Dawda A. Jallow reported the tribunal’s decision to Cabinet, President Barrow directed that the government could not simply accept what he considered an unjust award and instructed the Attorney General to challenge it through every lawful avenue available. The cabinet unanimously backed the decision to fight on.
The Attorney General’s Chambers then assembled a legal team combining local expertise with international firepower: senior Gambian counsel Edi M. O. Faal worked alongside Cherie Blair KC of Omnia Strategy, the London-based firm founded by the British barrister and wife of former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair.
The team, supported by state law officers and expert witness on Gambian law Kebba Sanyang, applied for the award to be annulled.
What the Committee Found
The ICSID Annulment Committee’s decision hinged on a technical but consequential point: it found that the original tribunal had failed to properly explain how Gambian law had given consent to ICSID arbitration in the first place, a gap the Committee said went to the very heart of the tribunal’s jurisdiction to hear the case at all. On that basis, the Committee annulled the award in its entirety.
The practical effect is substantial. The ruling wipes out the damages and interest previously imposed on The Gambia, spares the national budget an exposure of more than $32 million, and allows the country to recover roughly $213,000 in arbitration costs, money the government says can now go toward health, education, infrastructure, and other public priorities.
Attorney General Praises Legal Team
Attorney General Jallow said the result demonstrates that with firm political backing and disciplined legal preparation, The Gambia can defend its interests before international bodies even when facing well-resourced opponents.
He singled out President Barrow’s leadership for particular praise and thanked Cherie Blair, Edi M. O. Faal, Kebba Sanyang, and the wider legal team for what he described as two years of demanding, dedicated work.
The State House said the government remains committed to protecting public funds and the national interest while continuing to meet its international obligations and insisting on fair treatment in any dispute involving the country.
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