Gambian authorities have foiled a navy coup try and arrested 4 troopers plotting to overthrow President Adama Barrow’s administration, the federal government says.
The Gambian Armed Forces Excessive Command arrested 4 troopers linked to the alleged coup after a navy operation on Tuesday, it stated in an announcement.
Coup makes an attempt should not unusual within the Gambia, a tiny West African nation of two.5 million virtually fully surrounded by Senegal, which remains to be reeling from over 20 years underneath former president Yahya Jammeh marked by authoritarianism and alleged abuses.
Jammeh himself seized energy in a coup in 1994 and foiled a number of makes an attempt to overthrow him earlier than he misplaced an election in late 2016 to Barrow.
His ouster was extensively considered as a lift for democracy, though there was rising frustration with Barrow’s authorities for its failure to deal with poverty and rising residing prices.
“Primarily based on intelligence studies… some troopers of the Gambian military have been plotting to overthrow the democratically-elected authorities,” the federal government stated on Wednesday.
The military is in pursuit of three different alleged accomplices and investigations are ongoing, it added.
There have been no particulars on whether or not the coup try was linked to the earlier regime.
Eight ex-soldiers led by one in all Jammeh’s former navy aides plotted to overthrow Barrow the yr after he got here to energy. They have been sentenced to jail in 2019 on treason and conspiracy fees they denied.
