By Fatou Sillah
The Gambia recorded 847 maternal deaths between 2019 and 2025, Health Minister Dr. Ahmed Lamin Samateh told the National Assembly on Wednesday, describing the country’s maternal mortality rate as among the lowest in Africa.
Presenting figures compiled by the Ministry of Health, Dr. Samateh said 130 maternal deaths were recorded in 2025 out of 80,720 live births, translating to a maternal mortality ratio of 129 deaths per 100,000 live births.
“From January to December 2025, the Ministry of Health has recorded 130 maternal mortalities from our health facilities statistics out of 80,720 live births; this translates to 129 deaths per 100,000 live births,” he said.
He told lawmakers that the ministry’s data showed fluctuations in maternal deaths over the past several years but noted that the overall trend reflected improvements in maternal health outcomes.
According to the statistics he presented, The Gambia recorded 100 maternal deaths from 64,291 live births in 2019; 79 deaths from 63,660 live births in 2020; 135 deaths from 65,814 live births in 2021; 122 deaths from 75,186 live births in 2022; 156 deaths from 76,477 live births in 2023; 125 deaths from 72,507 live births in 2024; and 130 deaths from 80,720 live births in 2025.
Dr. Samateh said the country had achieved a reduction of more than 50 percent in maternal mortality in recent years, calling the progress “phenomenal,” even as he emphasized that the government’s goal remained to eliminate preventable maternal deaths.
“So that means The Gambia has been able to have more than a 50% reduction in maternal mortality these past two years. I think it is phenomenal, really phenomenal, even though we want to bring it to zero, because we don’t want any mother to be lost during or around childbirth,” he said.
The minister also cautioned that earlier data from 2014 to 2020 was incomplete because some health facilities, including the Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital, had not consistently entered maternal mortality records into the national District Health Information System (DHIS-2).
“From 2014 to 2020, the figures given are not representative because not all facilities, including Edward Francis Hospital, input their maternal mortality into DHIS-2, but this has now been corrected,” he said.
Dr. Samateh attributed the recent improvements to a combination of measures undertaken by the ministry, including expanded training and capacity building for health workers, improvements in hospital infrastructure, and efforts to address broader social and economic factors affecting maternal health.
He also pointed to national infrastructure development as playing a role in improving outcomes.
“As the roads are improving, electricity is coming, water is coming, the lives of the people are changing,” he said. “With better roads and functioning ambulances, people reach health facilities faster, and doctors are able to intervene earlier.”
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