Former foreign minister and retired civil servant Momodou Lamin Sedat Jobe passed yesterday. He was 81.
Sedat Jobe was born on 24 July 1944 in Bansang, completed his higher education in France, finishing with a doctorate from the University of Grenoble in 1976.
When he was not working as a career diplomat, he taught at the University of Dakar from 1974 to 1978 and Howard University from 1978 to 1980. He also worked for UNESCO latterly as its director of culture (1981–1996, 1996–1997).
He returned to the Gambian diplomatic service as an ambassador at large between 1996 and 1998 and was appointed foreign minister in January 1998.
As foreign minister, Jobe tried to lead an unsuccessful delegation to Guinea-Bissau to try to negotiate a settlement to the country’s civil war that erupted in 1998. He resigned in August 2001, following his disagreement with then President Yahya Jammeh over the expulsion of the deputy British high commissioner, Bharat Joshi. He later joined the struggle against Jammeh and became a member of the United Democratic Party UDP.
