THE GRAND MAGGAL TOUBA

On the 6th October, 2020 marks the “grand maggal touba”  in respect to the late Sheikh Bamba

Different people (muslims) from different parts of West Africa attended one of the biggest events held in senegal to witness the “Grand Maggal touba” which is an annual pilgrimage held in the name of the late shiekh Ahmadou Bamba Touba of Senegal.

The magal honors the founder of the “mouride brotherhood”, Senegal’s most influential religious leader. In those days about 3 to 4 million people travels to Senegal (touba) for this grand event, many coming from their neighboring country The Gambia.

Despite the covid19 pandemic restrictions,  people still decided to witness the annual pilgrimage held in the city of touba called the “ maggal touba” with about 10 thousands of Muslims gathered together in Senegal, from different parts of West Africa.

Although, hand sanitizers and other precautionary measures where practiced to avoid the spread of the Covid19 virus, and despite all that,  people were over crowded into homes due to the limited accommodations in town during the pilgrimage which made it fearful that the virus might spread rapidly due to the crowd and the movement of people especially those returning home.

However, we have some Gambians returning home from the Maggal, but As the Gambian government did made it clear that anyone that attends the maggal touba was supposed to adhere to the guidelines and quarantine protocols governing isolation and testing of the corona virus upon arrival, and shall go on PCR covid19 test for 72hours before re-entering the country.

“It seems as the rules put in place have not been implemented as mentioned “said by lamin jobe (To our reporter) an employee at Gambia ports.  He further said that the immigration should take all necessary measures to ensure that all those people coming from Senegal to the Gambia must be sent to quarantine for proper testing to confirm their status of the Covid19 virus before entering the country.