According to a government statement on Wednesday, Gambian authorities thwarted a military coup attempt and detained four soldiers who were planning to topple President Adama Barrow’s government.
Following a military operation on Tuesday, the Gambian military announced that four soldiers suspected of being involved in the attempted coup had been detained- according to a report consolidated by Aljazeera.
In The Gambia, a small West African nation of 2.5 million people that is nearly totally encircled by Senegal and is still recovering from more than two decades under the autocratic rule of former President Yahya Jammeh highlighted by alleged abuses, coup attempts are not uncommon.
Jammeh himself seized power in a coup in 1994 and foiled several attempts to overthrow him before he lost an election in late 2016 to Barrow.
Barrow’s win was widely viewed as a boost for democracy, although there has been growing frustration with his government for its failure to address poverty and rising living costs.
“Based on intelligence reports … some soldiers of the Gambian army were plotting to overthrow the democratically elected government,” the government said on Wednesday.
The army is in pursuit of three other alleged accomplices and investigations are continuing, it added.
There were no details on whether the coup attempt was linked to the previous government.
Eight ex-soldiers, led by one of Jammeh’s former military aides, plotted to overthrow Barrow the year after he came to power. They were sentenced to jail in 2019 on treason and conspiracy charges they denied.
Additional information from Aljazeera was added to this report.
