US denies any role in Gambia coup plot

WASHINGTON/BANJUL. — The United States on Thursday denied it had any role in an apparent coup attempt in Gambia, after the west African nation’s leader Yahya Jammeh blamed the attack on foreign dissidents.

“The US government had no role in the events that took place in Banjul,” a US State Department official said.

“The United States strongly condemns any attempt to seize power through extra-constitutional means.”

Jammeh, who was visiting Dubai at the time of Tuesday’s attack, blamed foreign dissidents and “terrorists” for the assault on his presidential palace. He denied it was an attempt to unseat him.

“It is an attack by dissidents based in the US, Germany and UK,” Jammeh said.

“This was not a coup. This was an attack by a terrorist group backed by some powers that I would not name.”

A group of heavily armed men led by an army deserter attacked the presidential palace but were repelled by forces loyal to Jammeh. Jammeh insisted that the armed forces “are very loyal” and that only former soldiers, including a senior commander, had taken part in the attack on his palace.

“No force can take this place and nobody can destabilise this country,” he said. “Anybody who plans to attack this country, be ready, because you are going to die.”

A group of heavily armed men led by an army deserter attacked the presidential palace before dawn, but were repelled by forces loyal to Jammeh, who has ruled for 20 years since he seized power in a 1994 coup that ousted Gambia’s founding leader Sir Dawda Jawara.

Investigators have allegedly seized the plan laying out the attack, in which the three suspects, including the alleged ringleader were killed, according to a military officer.

One of the alleged conspirators also led authorities to “a large quantity of very sophisticated automatic weapons and explosives,” in a shipping container disguised as second-hand clothing at Banjul’s port, the source close to the NIA said.

Meanwhile, several dozen military personnel and civilians were arrested, and a large cache of weapons and explosives were found following the failed coup attempt, an intelligence source said on Thursday.

The suspects were interrogated and were being held in “four villas” in or near the west African nation’s capital Banjul, said a source close to Gambia’s National Intelligence Agency (NIA).

Four officers suspected of participating in the attempt had taken refuge in the neighbouring west African nation of Guinea-Bissau, a military source told AFP. — AFP.