Gambian authorities announced Wednesday the arrest of four military officers who were planning a coup to overthrow President Adama Barrow, while stressing that operations are underway to arrest three other suspects.
Gambian government spokesman Ebrima Sankareh said in a statement that «according to intelligence reports, some Gambian Army soldiers were planning to overthrow the democratically elected government of President Adama Barrow».
Thus, he indicated that the High Command of the Gambian Armed Forces carried out on Tuesday «a rapid military operation» that resulted in the arrest of «four soldiers linked to this alleged plot to carry out a coup». «The arrested soldiers are assisting the Military Police in their investigations,» he stressed.
Sankareh stressed that «investigations into this matter are continuing and the public will be informed of any developments as the situation progresses,» while calling on Gambians to «continue with their normal activities.» «The situation is under full control and there is no need to panic,» he concluded.
Barrow was sworn in January for a second term in office after the Supreme Court rejected in late December the appeal filed by the main opposition candidate against the official results of the December 4, 2021 elections.
The president won re-election despite the fact that this meant breaking his promise of only three years in office — which expired in 2020 — after reaching a controversial alliance with the party of former dictator Yahya Jamé and after some allies left his side to run against him.
The president, who claimed victory in December 2016 after running as an independent with the support of Jamé’s opposition groups, was sworn in in January 2017 after the dictator went into exile in Equatorial Guinea after initially rejecting his defeat, leading to a threat of military intervention by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
