Gambian President Yahya Jammeh greets supporters during a rally in
Gambia on November 22, 2011. A military coup bid in the small west
African state of The Gambia was foiled early on December 30, 2014, while
President Yahya Jammeh was abroad, military and diplomatic sources
said. AFP PHOTO | SEYLLOU
BANJUL, Gambia,
Gambian
soldiers launched a pre-dawn coup bid in the capital Banjul while
President Yahya Jammeh was abroad, military and diplomatic sources said
Tuesday.
The coup, however, appeared to have been foiled.
"The
presidential palace was attacked very early this morning, at around
3:00am (0300 GMT), by armed individuals of whom some came from the
presidential guard," a Gambian diplomat said.
Army
sources and residents of the tropical city, which lies on an island near
the mouth of the Gambia river, confirmed the report and said the
attackers had been driven back.
"They wanted to
overthrow the regime," a military source in the small west African
country told AFP, while a Western diplomat said a coup attempt has
"apparently been foiled".
Soldiers had prevented some
civilians from going to work after the shooting, an AFP journalist said,
amid disruption in parts of Banjul, where patrols of loyal troops urged
people to stay home and be calm.
"The police and the army entirely control the situation," an army officer said.
No
casualty figures from the overnight clashes have been issued, but
sources in the regional Gambian diaspora reported both deaths and
injuries.
CAME TO POWER IN COUP
The
former head of military police, Jammeh has ruled the largely rural
nation of some 1.8 million people with a firm hand since 1994, when he
came to power in a coup that ousted founding leader Sir Dawda Jawara.
First
elected into presidential office in the mainly Muslim former British
colony two years later, at just 31, Jammeh initially outlawed political
parties that had operated under Jawara, decrying endemic corruption.
Jammeh's precise whereabouts remained unclear.
Gambian officials said the president was on a private visit to Dubai, but foreign diplomats said he was in France.
Backed
by his Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Reconstruction (APRC)
party, which enjoys a large majority in parliament, Jammeh has come
under fire for serious human rights abuses, including the disappearing
of his foes.
The December 2004 killing of prominent
journalist and critic of the regime Deyda Hydara, who edited The Point
newspaper and was also an AFP correspondent, caused uproar both in The
Gambia and abroad.
POOR RIGHTS RECORD
Allegations
linking the murder to Jammeh and his circle have gone no further and in
the wake of the affair, the president imposed tough measures in a
crackdown on press freedom.
The conservative, outspoken
leader has denounced gays and lesbians, once threatening to behead them
but instead overseeing the imposition of long jail terms.
In
2013, Jammeh told the UN General Assembly that homosexuality was
"becoming an epidemic" to be fought by Muslims and Africans alike.
Sensitive
to criticism, the government in October 2013 announced it was leaving
the Commonwealth and accused Britain and the United States of engaging
in a "shameless campaign of lying" about The Gambia's rights record.
In
a state media broadcast, the Gambian government described the 54-nation
group of former British colonies and their partners of being a
"neo-colonial" institution.
The whole country is a
long, thin strip of land that lies either side of the Gambia river,
sandwiched between the northern bulk of Senegal and the former French
colony's southern Casamance province.
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