An attempted coup in Gambia has failed:
Preparations began in August, when Mr Njie allegedly started recruiting men for his plan, according to a US criminal complaint. On December 3, a small group of about 10-12 men flew via South African Airways to Dakar in Senegal and from there they made their way overland to Gambia.
They planned to ambush the president and convince the head of the Gambian army to “stand down and support the change in leadership”, it is alleged. Gambia’s poorly equipped army numbers fewer than 3,000 soldiers.
“They hoped the president would surrender, but were willing to shoot him if he fired at them,” Nicholas Marshall, an FBI special agent, said in an affidavit. But the president never got the chance to surrender — he had left the country to celebrate New Year.
As in other mercenary-led coups in Africa, the target was a dictator. Mr Jammeh has run Gambia with an iron fist since he seized power in a coup more than two decades ago. He is known for his authoritarian rule and eccentric beliefs. In 2007, he claimed that he had found herbal cures for HIV and personally administered his treatment to patients. The following year he vowed to execute any gay person discovered in Gambia. In 2013, Gambia pulled out of the Commonwealth, the organisation that groups together mostly former territories of the British empire, following criticism over the country’s human rights record. Mr Jammeh called it “neocolonial”.
They split into two teams, codenamed “Alpha” and “Bravo”, and hid in the woods near the palace. In rented cars, they approached State House. But, instead of fleeing, the soldiers responded with heavy fire. Within minutes, the members of the Alpha team were dead while the Bravo group had run for safety. The 160 members of the Gambian army who supposedly agreed to support the coup never showed up.
Mr Faal told the FBI that he “fled the scene and took refuge in a nearby building, removed his body armour, boots and military-style clothing and changed into clothes obtained from a man in the building”. Within days, he had surrendered himself to the US authorities in the embassy in Dakar. He apparently identified Mr Njie in a photograph shown to him by US investigators.
Against gays eh? Yeah, that is cause enough for an overthrow.