Editing Sidi Moro Sanneh

{{Short description|Gambian economist, politician and diplomat}}
{{Infobox officeholder
 | name               = Sidi Moro Sanneh
 | office             = Gambian Ambassador to [[Senegal]]
 | term_start         = November 2005
 | term_end           = February 2006
 | president          = [[Yahya Jammeh]]
 | predecessor        = 
 | successor          = 
 | office1             = [[Minister of Foreign Affairs (The Gambia)|Minister of Foreign Affairs]]
 | term_start1         = 14 October 2004
 | term_end1           = 24 March 2005
 | president1          = Yahya Jammeh
 | predecessor1        = [[Baboucarr-Blaise Jagne]]
 | successor1          = [[Musa Gibril Bala Gaye]]
 | birth_date         = {{Birth date and age|1947|12|2|df=yes}}
 | birth_place        = [[Banjul|Bathurst]], [[The Gambia]]
 | nationality        = Gambian
 | party              = 
 | otherparty         =  <!--For additional political affiliations-->
 | spouse             = 
 | partner            =  <!--For those with a domestic partner and not married-->
 | relations          = 
 | children           = 
 | parents            = 
 | residence          = 
 | education          = 
 | alma_mater         = [[Wilberforce University]]<br>[[University of Wisconsin–Madison]]<br>[[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]]
 | occupation         = 
 | profession         = 
 | known_for          = 
 | cabinet            = 
 | committees         = 
 | portfolio          = 
 | religion           = 
 | awards             =  <!-- For civilian awards - appears as "Awards" if |mawards= is not set -->
 | website            = 
}}

'''Sidi Moro Sanneh''' (born 2 December 1947)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://rulers.org/indexs1.html|title=Index Sa|work=Rulers.org|accessdate=12 December 2015}}</ref> is a [[Gambia]]n economist, politician and diplomat and is currently a resident of the [[United States]]. Sanneh served as the Gambian [[Minister of Foreign Affairs (The Gambia)|Minister of Foreign Affairs]] from October 2004 to March 2005, and as the Gambian Ambassador to [[Senegal]] from November 2005 to February 2006.

==Early life and education==

Sanneh was born on 2 December 1947 in [[Banjul|Bathurst]], the only child of Morro Sanneh, a police inspector, and Aji Mallen Gaye. He was one of the first students to go through Gambia High School, beginning his studies there in 1959.<ref name=maaf />

He attended university in the United States, completing a [[bachelor's degree]] in economics and political science at [[Wilberforce University]], [[Ohio]]. He then completed a [[master's degree]] in agricultural economics at the [[University of Wisconsin–Madison]] before completing a diploma in urban management at the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]].<ref name=maaf>{{cite news|title=Sidi Sanneh Interview|url=http://www.maafanta.com/maafantasidisannehinterview|accessdate=12 December 2015|work=Maafanta}}</ref> As a student, Sanneh campaigned for [[Robert F. Kennedy]] in his [[Robert F. Kennedy presidential campaign, 1968|bid to become the Democratic nominee]] in the [[1968 United States presidential election|1968 US presidential election]].<ref name=maaf />

==Career==

Sanneh worked as an assistant to the [[Mayor of Madison, Wisconsin]], before working as the city's Public Service Employment Administrator and later the Coordinator of the Community Development Block Grant for both the city of [[Madison, Wisconsin|Madison]] and [[Dane County, Wisconsin|Dane County]].<ref name=maaf />

He returned to the Gambia in 1977, following the death of his father, when he joined the Gambian civil service. His first role was in the Ministry of Economic Planning and Industrial Development (MEPID), working under Dr Jabez Langley. From MEPID, he was seconded for three years to the Ministry of Agriculture to return the scandal-ridden Rural Development Project (RDP) to credibility. Following this, he returned to MEPID before transferring to the Ministry of Education.

At the Ministry of Education he ran a project of investment into the education sector that culminated into what is now the [[University of the Gambia]]. In 1989, he was asked to move again, this time to the Ministry of Finance and Trade where he worked as a Deputy Permanent Secretary. In January 1992, he left government service to work as an Executive Director of the [[African Development Bank]] Group in [[Abidjan]]. He left the Bank in June 2001 when he became a senior advisor on Resource Mobilisation with the [[United Nations Development Programme]]'s (UNDP) Regional Bureau for Africa.<ref name=maaf />

He became the Gambian [[Minister of Foreign Affairs (The Gambia)|Minister of Foreign Affairs]] on 14 October 2004 and served in that position until 24 March 2005, when he was removed without explanation. When relations between the Gambia and [[Senegal]] turned sour later that year, Jammeh asked him to return but as the Gambian Ambassador to Senegal. He took this role on in November 2005, with concurrent accreditation for Burkina Faso and Mali, and presented his credentials to the Senegalese government in January 2006. One of the most pressing issues he had to deal with were negotiations over the [[Casamance conflict]].<ref name=maaf />

In early February 2006, Sanneh received a call from a prominent Gambian parliamentarian and Jammeh appointee, warning him that Jammeh suspected him of working with the Gambian opposition. On 16 February, Sanneh received a call notifying that he had been relieved of his duty as an ambassador, but Sanneh insisted on a formal written notification. In March, a Gambian National Intelligence Agency (NIA) agent brought Sanneh the written notification, and informed him that he was to bring him back to Banjul, but Sanneh refused to leave. The Gambian government then granted him permission to remain in the embassy residence until his daughter's school year had ended.{{Citation needed|date=June 2023}}

Following the end of his daughter's school year, Sanneh and his family moved to a hotel in [[Dakar]]. At the hotel, Sanneh and his family received threatening anonymous phone calls and noticed a large number of Gambian cars around the hotel and a large number of Gambians working in and staying in the hotel, causing them to fear for their lives. In August 2006, the US Embassy in Dakar requested authorization for Sanneh and his family to be taken in under the US Refugee Resettlement Program, writing that they considered "their lives to be in immediate danger".{{Citation needed|date=June 2023}}

In January 2007, Sanneh returned to the United States, and in January 2008, he was made program Director at Dyncorp International in Falls Church, Virginia. He currently blogs about the Gambian government and is considered a "dissident".<ref>{{cite news|title=The Gambia now an Islamic republic, says President Yahya Jammeh|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/12/gambia-now-an-islamic-republic-says-president-yahya-jammeh?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other|accessdate=13 December 2015|work=The Guardian|date=12 December 2015}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{s-start}}
{{succession box|title=[[Minister of Foreign Affairs (The Gambia)|Minister of Foreign Affairs]]|before=[[Baboucarr-Blaise Jagne]]|after=[[Musa Gibril Bala Gaye]]|years=2004&ndash;2005}}
{{s-end}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sanneh, Sidi Moro}}
[[Category:1947 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Wilberforce University alumni]]
[[Category:University of Wisconsin–Madison College of Agricultural and Life Sciences alumni]]
[[Category:Ministers of foreign affairs of the Gambia]]
[[Category:Government ministers of the Gambia]]
[[Category:Ambassadors of the Gambia to Senegal]]
[[Category:Gambian diplomats]]
[[Category:People from Banjul]]