The Gambia government announced today, Wednesday, that it had thwarted a military coup attempt the day before and arrested 4 soldiers, and confirmed in a statement that it was "in full control" of the situation.
"Based on intelligence that Gambian army soldiers were plotting to overthrow the democratically elected government of President Adama Barrow, the High Command (armed forces) launched a military operation yesterday," said Gambian government spokesman Ebrima J Sankareh in a statement posted on social media.
Sankareh, the president's advisor, also added in the statement that "four soldiers linked to this supposed coup attempt have been arrested," explaining that the military police are interrogating them while searching for 3 accomplices.
"The government urges citizens, residents, and members of the diplomatic and consular corps to go about their business as usual, because the situation is completely under control and there is no need for panic," he said.
Witnesses spoke of soldiers moving around the presidential residence in the center of the capital, Banjul, on Tuesday night, while rumors circulated overnight of a coup attempt in the smallest country on the African continent.
Gambian President Adama Barrow won a second term in December 2021 (European-archive)
20 years of dictatorship
A democratic regime took power in The Gambia only in 2017 after more than 20 years of dictatorship led by Yahya Jammeh.
And if confirmed, this will be the latest coup attempt in a country in West Africa since 2020, after two successful coups in Mali and Burkina Faso and another in Guinea, and an attempt to impose a fait accompli in Guinea-Bissau.
The unexpected arrival of Adama Barrow to the presidency in January 2017 ended two decades of authoritarian rule in this small, impoverished country of two million people.
Barrow won a second term in December 2021 during a presidential election that constituted the first open transition since the end of the dictatorship at the head of this former British colony.