Relationship dossier
The Gambia
United States
Relationship assessment
Development and democratic-transition cooperation alongside U.S. human-rights and deportation-related pressure
The Gambia toward United States
+20The Gambian government has engaged with U.S.-supported development and health programs and with Peace Corps activities, and cooperated with the United States during the 2017 democratic transition. Cooperation over accepting Gambian deportees from the United States has also been a source of friction.
United States toward The Gambia
+30The United States has provided development and health assistance and supported The Gambia’s democratic transition in 2017. It has also restricted some trade benefits over human-rights concerns and imposed visa-related measures tied to Gambian cooperation on accepting deportees.
Overall relationship
+25The relationship combines U.S. assistance and engagement with The Gambia’s democratic transition with periodic U.S. pressure over human rights and deportation cooperation. These recurring practical ties and disputes point to a generally cooperative but not especially close bilateral relationship.
How to read these scores
Scores are rough judgments, not objective measurements or current verification. Directional scores describe government policy and conduct, not public opinion. The overall score is an independent estimate, never an average.
- −100
- Extreme sustained hostility
- −50
- Substantially adversarial
- 0
- Mixed or neutral, supported by knowledge
- +50
- Substantially cooperative
- +100
- Exceptionally close sustained partnership
“Not assessed” means there is no recorded score. Pair existence makes no claim about diplomatic recognition or established relations.
Relationship context
Overview
The Gambia and the United States have maintained a relationship that includes U.S. development and health assistance, Peace Corps engagement, and cooperation around The Gambia’s democratic transition in 2017. U.S. policy has also included restrictions tied to human-rights concerns and cooperation on accepting deportees. These features indicate practical cooperation alongside recurring policy friction; the breadth and implementation of bilateral arrangements are unclear.
Areas of tension
- U.S. human-rights concerns and restrictions affecting trade benefits.
- Gambian cooperation with U.S. efforts to return Gambian nationals subject to deportation.
Key developments
The United States supported The Gambia’s democratic transition following the 2016 election and Yahya Jammeh’s departure in 2017.
The United States imposed visa-related measures concerning Gambian cooperation with the return of Gambian nationals subject to deportation.
U.S. trade-benefit eligibility for The Gambia was affected by concerns over human rights and governance.
Major uncertainties
- The scope and current implementation of bilateral security and development cooperation are unclear.
- The status of cooperation on accepting deportees and related U.S. visa restrictions is uncertain.