Barrow’s desire to cement his presidency and former President Jammeh’s ambitions to go back to politics undermine political stability in Gambia amid weak security reforms.
Gambian armed forces have made four arrests of active soldiers who were allegedly involved in a plot to overthrow the administration of President Adama Barrow on December 20, 2022. The soldiers were charged with treason and related charges in a military court martial.
According to local intelligence, some soldiers in the army were plotting to overthrow the democratically elected government. Those accused and arrested are:
Lance Corporal Sanna Fadera had been detained. Loyalist troops were still searching for two alleged accomplices, following the arrest of officers from the navy, military police, state guards and first infantry battalions.
- Lance Corporal Sanna Fadera from the Gambia Navy as the alleged ring leader of the plot;
- Corporal Mbarra Touray from 1st Infantry Battalion, Yundum Barracks;
- Corporal Ebrahima Sanno from the Military Police who is currently on study leave
- Sergeant Gibril Darboe from The Gambia Navy. The apprehended soldiers are currently helping the Military Police with their investigations.
Meanwhile, alleged soldiers involved in the plot either being pursued or on the run are:Corporal Njie B from the State Guards Battalion; Warrant Officer Class 2 Jadama from The Gambia Navy and one Badjie from The Gambia Navy. First names of Jadama and Badjie are yet to be established.
former dictator Yahya Jammeh in presidential elections in December 2016 and won a second term in the 2021 elections.Jammeh was forced into exile after refusing to accept defeat. He is also accused of human rights abuses while in office. However, he remains an influential figure in The Gambia.
He has been distrustful of the military, with troops from neighbouring Senegal in charge of his personal security, while the main international airport and sea port are guarded by troops from Nigeria and Ghana respectively.
This has made him unpopular with many Gambians, who feel that he has undermined the country’s sovereignty by relying on foreign forces.
A lack of security reforms is to blame for this latest coup attempt.
However, there is a doubt that the plot was serious, as all the officers were junior. When reports of a coup attempt first surfaced on December 20th, the army denied it, saying it had only carried out a “military drill”.
Barrow’s popularity plummeted further when he announced that he had formed an alliance with Mr Jammeh’s old party, in what was seen as an attempt to boost his chances of securing a second term.
The campaign manager of the main opposition party, Momodou Sabally, has been detained by police over a widely circulated TikTok video which suggests that Mr Barrow would be unseated before next year’s local government elections. But Gambian police publicly do not link Mr Sabally, who was a presidential affairs minister in former leader Yahya Jammeh’s regime, to the alleged coup plot.Meanwhile, Mr Sabally’s United Democratic Party (UDP) said it condemned, “without any reservations”, the attempted coup.
However, Jammeh in a phone call to a rally on Saturday, December 17th, said he would return soon and would lead the country once more.
Gambian people are worried about their economic situation but do not support military involvement in the country’s political affairs.
The majority of Gambians are anti-coup.
President Barrow (ethnic Fula/ Mandinka) was reelected in December 2021, securing a second five-year term.
Barrow first came to power in 2016 after defeating the country’s authoritarian president Yahya Jammeh is ethnic Diola), who ruled the country for 22 years. Jammeh himself took power in a coup in 1994 and averted several attempts to overthrow him.
In 2017 eight soldiers who had a link to the former president tried to overthrow Barrow.
Gambians are raising questions in terms of the speed of this reform. The government of Gambia needs to reform the country’s political, economic and security structure to stop the military from taking power.
It provided few details about what exactly happened, but, according to some witness accounts, there were soldier movements around the presidential headquarters in the center of the capital, Banjul. Barrow faced coup attempt before. Eight former soldiers led by one of his 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.
