BANJUL, Gambia,
Gambian soldiers launched a pre-dawn coup bid
in the capital Banjul while President Yahya
Jammeh was abroad, military and diplomatic
sources said Tuesday.
The coup, however, appeared to have been
foiled.
"The presidential palace was attacked very early
this morning, at around 3:00am (0300 GMT), by
armed individuals of whom some came from the
presidential guard," a Gambian diplomat said.
Army sources and residents of the tropical city,
which lies on an island near the mouth of the
Gambia river, confirmed the report and said the
attackers had been driven back.
"They wanted to overthrow the regime," a
military source in the small west African country
told AFP, while a Western diplomat said a coup
attempt has "apparently been foiled".
Soldiers had prevented some civilians from
going to work after the shooting, an AFP
journalist said, amid disruption in parts of
Banjul, where patrols of loyal troops urged
people to stay home and be calm.
"The police and the army entirely control the
situation," an army officer said.
No casualty figures from the overnight clashes
have been issued, but sources in the regional
Gambian diaspora reported both deaths and
injuries.
CAME TO POWER IN COUP
The former head of military police, Jammeh has
ruled the largely rural nation of some 1.8 million
people with a firm hand since 1994, when he
came to power in a coup that ousted founding
leader Sir Dawda Jawara.
First elected into presidential office in the
mainly Muslim former British colony two years
later, at just 31, Jammeh initially outlawed
political parties that had operated under Jawara,
decrying endemic corruption.
Jammeh's precise whereabouts remained
unclear.
Gambian officials said the president was on a
private visit to Dubai, but foreign diplomats said
he was in France.
Backed by his Alliance for Patriotic
Reorientation and Reconstruction (APRC) party,
which enjoys a large majority in parliament,
Jammeh has come under fire for serious human
rights abuses, including the disappearing of his
foes.
The December 2004 killing of prominent
journalist and critic of the regime Deyda
Hydara, who edited The Point newspaper and
was also an AFP correspondent, caused uproar
both in The Gambia and abroad.
POOR RIGHTS RECORD
Allegations linking the murder to Jammeh and his
circle have gone no further and in the wake of
the affair, the president imposed tough
measures in a crackdown on press freedom.
The conservative, outspoken leader has
denounced gays and lesbians, once threatening to
behead them but instead overseeing the
imposition of long jail terms.
In 2013, Jammeh told the UN General Assembly
that homosexuality was "becoming an epidemic"
to be fought by Muslims and Africans alike.
Sensitive to criticism, the government in
October 2013 announced it was leaving the
Commonwealth and accused Britain and the
United States of engaging in a "shameless
campaign of lying" about The Gambia's rights
record.
In a state media broadcast, the Gambian
government described the 54-nation group of
former British colonies and their partners of
being a "neo-colonial" institution.
The whole country is a long, thin strip of land
that lies either side of the Gambia river,
sandwiched between the northern bulk of
Senegal and the former French colony's
southern Casamance province.