Gambia’s ex-dictator plunders and flees

GAMBIA: Gambia’s new president has threatened to scrap an immunity deal for his predecessor after accusing him of fleeing into exile with a plane-load of expensive cars and cash stolen from the central bank.

With regional armies advancing on his capital, Yahya Jammeh agreed to a deal ending his 22-year rule of the former British colony and transferring power to Adama Barrow, the internationallyrecognised winner of last month’s presidential election.

Smiling as a military band struck up the national anthem, Jammeh waved to a small group of tearful supporters as he boarded a private jet.

At about the same time, three of his 13-strong fleet of Bentleys and Rolls-Royces – each one with the words ‘‘His Excellency Sheikh Professor Doctor Yahya AJJ Jammeh’’ embroidered on the headrests – were seen being driven onto a much larger cargo aircraft.

Barrow, who was sworn in as president in neighbouring Senegal last week, also accused his predecessor of stripping the central bank of its cash reserves.

‘‘According to the information we received, there is no money in the coffers,’’ Barrow said in Senegal, where he has based himself until a west African intervention force secures the Gambian capital Banjul.

However, amid mounting confusion caused by the delayed transition, another aide to the incoming president said he had been told by Gambia’s police chief that central bank funds were ‘‘intact’’. There were suggestions the money may have been stolen from another government account.

Aides insisted Gambia was facing ‘‘financial distress’’ as a result of Jammeh’s actions. One adviser to the president, Mai Ahmad Fatty, said the new government would now not honour a deal brokered by the United Nations and African states that effectively gave Jammeh immunity and allowed him to keep his wealth.

– Telegraph Group