Foreign powers backed coup attempt, says Gambian president

Nairobi, Jan 1 (IANS/EFE) Gambian President Yahya Jammeh has accused foreign powers of supporting the attempted coup earlier this week by a group of soldiers who took advantage of his absence from the country and attacked the presidential palace in the capital city of Banjul, media reported Thursday.

In his first public statement since the incident Tuesday, Jammeh described what happened not as a coup, but as an "armed attack".

"It was an attack by terrorist groups backed by some foreign powers which I will not name now," Jammeh said in a televised address Wednesday night, according to the Gambian newspaper Jollofnews.

The president explained that the weapons confiscated by the security forces were made in the US, and said that the intelligence services will be revealing further details soon.

Although the international community called the attack on the presidential palace a coup attempt, Gambian Minister for Presidential Affairs Kalilou Bayo said that contrary to rumours, all was quiet in the West African nation.

The UN Security Council Wednesday condemned the attempted coup and urged the UN and the African Union to provide support in order to restore calm.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon called "for all parties to exercise restraint and to refrain from further violence".

Jammeh, 49, came to power in 1994 after a coup and has won four consecutive presidential elections.

--IANS/EFE

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