Two military officers In Gambia have been arrested for allegedly plotting to remove President Adama Barrow from office.
A statement on Monday by government’s spokesman Ebrima Sankareh which was made available to Africa Today News, New York said they were apprehended over the weekend.
Their arrest followed the earlier interception of a group of soldiers that attempted to stage the mutiny.
“Two more soldiers…were arrested over the weekend and are helping investigators unearth allegations of plans to overthrow the Government”, Sankareh noted.
The officers include a second-lieutenant of the Gambian infantry, and a captain from the military intelligence and security unit.
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They were arrested on Saturday and Sunday respectively; the search for other alleged plotters is ongoing.
A total of seven military personnel are in custody, according to the government.
Barrow has been President of the Gambia since 2017. He was reelected in December 2021.
Africa has witnessed a series of coup de tat since August 2020. The affected countries are Mali, Guinea, Sudan and Burkina Faso.
A coup was executed in Sudan in October 2021 after a failed attempt. The military reinstated civilian authority but remains actively involved in government.
The Gambia’s government on Wednesday said it had thwarted a coup attempt the previous day and arrested four soldiers.
“The situation is under total control,” it added in a statement.
There was no immediate confirmation of the purported plot from other sources.
Scattered witness accounts reported soldier movements around the presidential headquarters in the centre of the capital Banjul on Tuesday evening, and rumours circulated during the night of a possible coup.
“Based on intelligence reports that some soldiers of the Gambian army were plotting to overthrow the democratically elected government of President Adama Barrow, the (armed forces) in a swift military operation conducted yesterday arrested four soldiers linked to this alleged coup plot,” the statement said.
“The apprehended soldiers are currently helping the military police with their investigations.
“Meanwhile, the army is in pursuit of three more alleged accomplices.”
The tiny West African state is a fragile democracy, still scarred by a brutal 22-year dictatorship under Yahya Jammeh.
Jammeh was defeated in presidential elections in December 2016 to political newcomer Barrow and fled to Equatorial Guinea, but retains clout back home.