Gambia drops plan to host 2019 OIC summit

By Mustapha K Darboe

BANJUL, Gambia (AA) - Gambia will not host the summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in 2019, a press release from the presidency said on Tuesday.

The presidency said the decision to defer the hosting followed a series of high-level consultations held with other African countries.

The authorities said the decision was made due to the “limited time” available to have the needed infrastructure for the successful hosting of the summit in 2019.

“The Government thus, opted to seek the deferment of its hosting of the Summit to the year 2022, when the next OIC Summit is scheduled to take place,” it added.

Gambia won the bids to host the OIC summit at the 13th summit of the bloc held in Turkey in April 2016.