Information reaching this paper has it that Lieutenant Colonel Biran Saine who was discharged from the army early this year has been reinstated as Chief of the Gambia National Guards (GNG). He was reportedly reinstated last week.

Lt. Col. Saine is said to be one of the best heads and most experienced officers in the Gambia National Army.

He enlisted in the Gambia National Army on 15th January 1986.

In 1987, he was posted to Charlie Company, 1st Infantry Battalion on their deployment to the then Senegambia Confederal Battalion, where he served until 1989.

He was thereafter sent to the US to attend the United States Army Infantry Officers’ Basic Course at Fort Benning, Georgia.

In September 1989 he was commissioned as Second Lieutenant.

Since then, Lt Col Saine had held many appointments in the army.
He served in ECOMOG-Liberia from mid 1991 to early 1992, as platoon commander. He also served with the United Nations Operations in Côte d’Ivoire (UNOCI) as a Military Observer.

In late 1992, Lt Col Saine was appointed Staff Officer Grade 3 Intelligence and Security at Headquarters, Gambia National Army. This was at a time when the Nigerian Army Training Assistance Group (NATAG) to The Gambia established the present Headquarters of the Gambia National Army. After successfully completing the Intelligence and Security Overseas Officers’ Course in the UK in 1993, he was appointed Staff Officer, Grade 2 Intelligence and Security.

Lt Col Saine did his Junior Staff Course at the Command and Staff College, Nigeria in 1996. In 1997, he took a five-year study leave from the Gambia Armed Forces and went to the US to pursue a Double Major in Computer Science and Business Management. He graduated from Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, Lowa, on 30th June 2002, with a BSc in Computer Science and a BA in Business Management. Upon his return from the US in July 2002, he was appointed Director Intelligence and Security as well as Information Technology (IT) Officer of the Gambia Armed Forces.

Lt Col Saine had attended six military courses in the course of his career, the most recent of which are: Administration and Logistic in United Nations Peace Operations and International Peace Support Operations, at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre in Ghana, in 2004. He also attended the senior staff course at the Armed Forces Command and StaffCollege in Nigeria from August 2004 to July 2005.