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Jammeh leaves state coffers empty

 

Following months of crisis, Gambia’s ruler of 22 years Yahya Jammeh finally left the country on the night of Jan.21.

He had earlier refused to concede defeat in a Dec.01 election but eventually relinquished power after members of the West African bloc ECOWAS launched a military operation on him shortly after his competitor Adama Barrow was sworn in at an embassy in the neighboring Senegal.  He is however accused of leaving with the country’s money to the tunes of $11million in addition to a fleet of luxury vehicles – believed to have been swindled in just a period of two weeks as more pressure mounted on him. Other reports show that Jammeh wanted to stay in the country but the negotiators led by Guinea President Alpha Conde and Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz of Mauritania advised that his security couldn’t be  guaranteed if he stayed. He flew to exile in Equatorial Guinea.

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editor@independent.co.ug

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