The Gambian president who was visiting the Middle East at the time of Tuesday’s attack, blamed foreign dissidents and “terrorists” for the assault on State House. He said: “It is an attack by dissidents based in the US, Germany and UK. 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 former State Guard commander, Lamin Sanneh, based in the US attacked State House but were repelled by forces loyal to the president. The State Department said the US embassy in Banjul would be open. “We continue to call on the government of The Gambia to respect human rights and democratic values in the country,’ the official said.
Meanwhile, several arrests have been reported in the wake of the coup and a large cache of weapons and explosives found, an intelligence source said. While some of the Tuesday attackers were said to have been killed, at least one of them, named as Modou Njie, was said to have been injured and captured.
]]>
