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Gambia's former leader Yahya Jammeh 'made off with millions and luxury cars', says president Adama Barrow's adviser
Gambia’s new president has disavowed an immunity deal for his predecessor after accusing him of fleeing into exile with a plane-load of luxury cars and cash stolen from the central bank.
With regional armies advancing on his capital, Yahya Jammeh agreed to a deal over the weekend ending his 22-year rule of the former British colony and transferring power to Adama Barrow, the internationally-recognised winner of last month’s presidential election.
Smiling broadly as a military band struck up the national anthem, Mr Jammeh, who had initially refused to recognise Mr Barrow’s victory, waved to a small group of tearful supporters as he boarded a private jet taking him into exile.
He may well have had reason to smile. At almost the same time, three of Mr Jammeh’s 13-strong fleet of Bentleys and Rolls Royces — each one with the words “His Excellency Sheikh Professor Doctor Yahya AJJ Jammeh” embroidered on the headrests — were seen being driven onto a much larger cargo aircraft.
Mr Barrow, who was sworn in as president in neighbouring Senegal last week, also accused his predecessor of stripping the central bank of its cash reserves over the past fortnight.
“According to the information we received, there is no money in the coffers,” Mr Barrow told RFM Radio in Senegal, where he has based himself until a West African intervention force secures the Gambian capital Banjul. It has so far met no resistance.
Aides of Mr Barrow said at least GBP 8.8 million was missing, a considerable sum for a country of just 1.9 million people.
With Gambia now facing “financial distress”, a deal brokered by the United Nations and African states that effectively gave Mr Jammeh immunity and allowed him to keep his wealth was now off the table, according to Mai Ahmad Fatty, an adviser to the new president.
“As far as we’re concerned, it doesn’t exist,” Mr Fatty told reporters.
Mr Jammeh is the latest in a series of dictators to flee abroad with suitcases of state treasure. Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali and his wife allegedly flew out of Tunisia in 2011 with 1.5 tonnes of gold bars purloined from the central bank, while Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos left the Philippines with 24 suitcases of gold bricks and 22 crates of cash.
It took workers more than two hours to load three tractor trailers with cash taken from the vaults of Baghdad’s central bank by Qusay Hussain, Saddam Hussain’s son, when the Baathist regime was toppled in 2003, according to American officials.
Mr Jammeh has turned down an offer of asylum in Nigeria and is thought to be heading to Equatorial Guinea.
Although less cosmopolitan than Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea is safer for the former Gambian president because it has not signed up to the International Criminal Court.
Mr Jammeh will receive a warm welcome from Equatorial Guinea’s leader, Teodoro Obiang, who similarly came to power in a coup (overthrowing his uncle) and is likewise accused of detaining and torturing political opponents.
Providing an easy topic of conversation, Mr Obiang’s son, who faces trial for embezzlement in France, is another classic car enthusiast, counting several Ferraris and Bugattis among his collection.