By Omar Bah
The Chief of Defense Staff General Masanneh Kinteh has confirmed the dramatic return of two top Jammeh military aides without detection at the Banjul International Airport.
Speaking to different news outlets yesterday, CDS Kinteh said the two men were picked up from their respective homes in Busumbala and Yarambaba on Sunday.
“They came on Royal Air Maroc in the early hours of that morning,” Kinteh said. Asked how the two men who are well known close aides to Jammeh landed at the airport without being apprehended, Kinteh said that very matter too is being investigated.
CDS Kinteh would also not say whether anything dangerous has been retrieved from their possession insisting that so far investigations are ongoing.
“There is still a lot to be established and these are just the prime stages of the investigation. I would not know much,” he concluded.
Umpa Mendy and Ansumana Tamba fled with the former President to Equatorial Guinea last year. Mendy is one of Jammeh’s most trusted aides while Tamba, is The Gambia’s most competent heavy weapon trained specialist.
The arrival back into the country of the two people has left many people wondering what prompted their decision to come back, knowing they could be targets of arrest and possible detention. While some regard them as threats, others say they could have been sick and tired of the miserable life as a refugee in an unknown world.
In a press release yesterday, the Army assured the public of safety.
