Gambia's first post-independence president Jawara dies at 95
BANJUL - Dawda Kairaba Jawara, Gambia’s first post-independence president who led the tiny West African country for 24 years before being deposed in a 1994 coup, has died at the age of 95, the presidency said on Tuesday.
The office of President Adama Barrow, whose election in 2016 brought an end to the rule of the army officer who toppled Jawara, Yahya Jammeh, hailed the late president as “an elder statesman” and Gambia’s “founding father.”
Tributes are being paid to Dawda Jawara, The vet-turned-politician led his country to independence from the UK in 1965 first serving as prime minister.
After The Gambia, one of Africa’s smallest nations, became a republic in 1970 he was elected president, surviving one attempted coup 11 years later with the help of troops from neighbouring Senegal.
But in 1994 he was overthrown by soldier Yahya Jammeh, whose 22-year rule was renowned for its human rights abuses.
Afterwards Sir Dawda, who was knighted by Queen Elizabeth, lived in exile in the UK for eight years, but returned to The Gambia where he lived out his retirement.
“I think Sir Dawda’s most important legacy would be his respect for human rights and also putting in place strong government institutions that are the envied and admired,” Gambian Information Minister Ebraima Sillah said, remembering him as a charismatic and eloquent man.
“When he came to power there was doubt that Gambia would survive as a state, it was called an improbable nation then,” he explained.
“That’s a debatable point,” he replied.