Jammeh ‘stole $11m’ in final weeks in power

The Gambia’s government faces financial distress after former dictator looted the coffers, presidential aide says

BANJUL // Yahya Jammeh, the Gambia’s former leader in exile, plundered millions of dollars in his final weeks in power, leaving state coffers empty, said an aide to president Adama Barrow. Mr Jammeh flew out of the Gambia on Saturday, ending 22 years at the helm of the small west African nation. He was going to Equatorial Guinea where he was expected to settle with his family.

A West African military force entered Gambia on Sunday – greeted by cheers from residents – to prepare for Mr Barrow to return and take power after more than a week in neighbouring Senegal.

But amid growing controversy over the assurances offered to Mr Jammeh to guarantee his departure, Mai Fatty, an aide of Mr Barrow, said the new administration had discovered that about US$11 million (Dh40.4m) had recently been stolen.

“The coffers are largely emp- ty,” he said. “Over two weeks, more than 500 million dalasi were withdrawn [ by Mr Jammeh]. As we take over, the government of the Gambia is in financial distress.”

Mr Jammeh had refused to step down after Mr Barrow won the election on December 1 last year, triggering weeks of uncertainty that almost ended in a full military intervention.

Mr Jammeh finally left in the early hours of Sunday in an unmarked plane.

Mr Fatty said Mr Barrow was eager to return “as soon as possible”, but warned that the state of security was still fragile.

On Sunday, “additional forces crossed into Gambia to beef up the numbers already on the ground”, Mr Barrow said.

The new administration wants troops from the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) to stay on. “We want their mandate to be extended,” Mr Fatty said, adding that Mr Barrow was waiting for assur- ances of loyalty from the security forces. Mr Jammeh had personal control of certain sections of the security forces, and his long tenure was marked by systematic abuses of human rights, including extrajudicial killings, torture and arbitrary detention.

The Senegalese general leading a joint force of troops from five African nations said soldiers would “control strategic points to ensure the safety of the population and facilitate Mr Barrow’s assumption of his role”.

Marcel Alain de Souza, a top Ecowas official, said the Gambia “could not be left open” for long, and that Mr Barrow must be in place “as soon as possible”.

A senior Senegalese military source said his forces met little resistance on Sunday, as army chief Ousman Badjie had already declared his loyalty to Mr Barrow.

Critics have raised concerns over the wording of a statement issued by the United Nations, Ecowas and the African Union that seemed to offer Mr Jammeh guarantees for his future.

“No legislative measures” would be taken that would infringe the “dignity, security, safety and rights” of Mr Jammeh or his family, it said, noting that property “lawfully” belonging to him would not be seized.

Experts said, however, that the document was not legally binding. Equatorial Guinea is not a signatory to the Rome Statute that established the International Criminal Court. That means that Mr Jammeh would not be extradited in the event he was charged with crimes against humanity or other serious offences.

His expected arrival in the country was met with ire as the opposition Convergence for Social Democracy accused president Teodoro Obiang Nguema of showing contempt towards Equatorial Guinea and “thinking only of his personal gain” by granting the political exile. Mr Jammeh took power in a coup in 1994 from Dawda Jawara, the Gambia’s only other president since independence from Britain, making Mr Barrow’s rise to the presidency the Gambia’s first democratic transition of power.

The new administration’s first priority will be to ensure the safe return of thousands of people, as well as foreign visitors, who have fled in recent weeks, fearing a bloody end to the crisis.