Gambia trial opens over children’s cough syrup deaths

By AFP

October 25, 2023

Wuri Bailo Keita, 33, holds a mobile phone showing a picture of himself and his late daughter, Fatoumatta, who is believed to have died of acute kidney failure after ingesting contaminated cough syrup manufactured in India on October 10, 2022. — AFP

BANJUL, Gambia: A trial opened on Tuesday in The Gambia´s capital Banjul over the deaths of small children who took a cough syrup made by the India-based Maiden Pharmaceuticals.

Justice Ebrima Jaiteh of the High Court in Banjul adjourned the proceedings until November 7 after finding that three state defendants who had failed to appear “lacked diligence”.

Some 70 children aged 5 and under died in 2022 after taking the over-the-counter medicines, leading to a national outcry in the West African nation of about 2.5 million people.

Nineteen plaintiffs representing family members who were victims in July filed the suit, according to Salieu Taal, president of The Gambia Bar Association and one of the lawyers representing the plaintiffs.

The families are suing five defendants -- Maiden Pharmaceuticals, local distributor Atlantic Pharmaceuticals, the Medical Controls Agency (MCA), the Ministry of Health and Attorney General Dawda A. Jallow -- to demand they admit that the children were killed by consuming contaminated medicines.

They are also suing for an admission that the MCA failed in its statutory duty to regulate the quality and safety of medicines. The health ministry, MCA and attorney general requested a delay to the start of the trial, a motion the judge dimissed. He ordered the three to pay 10,000 Dalasis to the plaintiffs.