Looting to the end: The fall of Yahya Jammeh

Gambia’s former President Yahya Jammeh (top) fled the country on Saturday after declaring he would step down and hand over power to President Adama Barrow (below), ending a political crisis. [Photo: AFP]

Former Gambian president Yahya Jammeh boarded a Falcon Jet on Saturday night on his way into exile after emptying state coffers, stealing more than Sh1.1 billion and flying out luxury cars.

Despite having been a president for over two decades, the former Gambian despot could not resist the temptation to put his hands in the till one more time before he fled.

In the two weeks he had clung to power after the shock election defeat, Jammeh — who had been in power since 1994 — looted $11.4 million, which translates to at least Sh1.1 billion at current exchange rates, to start his life in exile.

He also flew out of the country valuable goods that included an unknown number of luxury cars.

Jammeh was trounced by Adama Barrow in an election held in December last year, ending his 22-year dictatorship and a rule that had been marred by corruption allegations.

Several months before the election, he was forced to sack 27 Government officials after a scandal was unearthed at its national petroleum company.

For a man who seized power claiming the former Government was chocking in corruption, nepotism, abuse of office and excessive power, his exit is a taste of his own medicine.

He had initially accepted defeat, but changed his mind shortly after. Hours before the end of his official term, the Gambian National Assembly handed Jammeh another lifeline after it extended his stay by another three months.

But all this changed after a regional military force and the international community threatened to forcibly remove him from office. He chose the safer route on Saturday when he flew into exile with his family in Equatorial Guinea, another nation that has had one president for almost four decades.

The Equatorial Guinea president Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo has been in power since 1979 when he ousted his uncle, Francisco Macías Nguema, in a military coup. He has presided over a regime that has seen him described as a brutal central African dictator whose son (and vice-president) owns luxury cars and homes all over the world.

President Obiang’s regime has been accused of corruption, electoral fraud and even cannibalism.

This is perhaps why Jammeh chose Equatorial Guinea, one of Africa’s richest countries per capita, as the safest place to run to.

An aide to the incoming president, Mai Ahmad Fatty, told journalists that the disgraced former president looted more than Sh1.1 billion ($11.4 million) during a two-week period alone and shipped out luxury cars by cargo plane.

“The Gambia is in financial distress. The coffers are virtually empty. That is a state of fact,” Fatty said. “It has been confirmed by technicians in the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank of the Gambia.”

Obiang’s government has not yet commented on Jammeh’s presence in Equatorial Guinea despite strong resistance from the Opposition.

Obiang’s son is currently on trial for corruption in France, charged with spending millions in state funds to feed an opulent lifestyle of fast cars, designer clothes, works of art and high-end real estate. The Democratic Opposition Front said Jammeh cannot qualify for political asylum because he triggered Gambia’s crisis by refusing to step down for weeks after he lost the December vote.

“We are not against Pan-Africanism, but we are in favour of a more objective Pan-Africanism that does not consist in just bringing over the waste of Africa,” the group said.

With Jammeh gone, a country that had waited in silence during the crisis sprang back to life. Shops and restaurants opened, music played and people danced in the streets.

Defence chief Ousmane Badjie said the military welcomed the arrival of the regional force “wholeheartedly”. With proper orders, he said, he would open the doors to the notorious prisons where rights groups say many who have disappeared over the years may be kept.

“We are going to show Barrow we are really armed forces with a difference, I swear to God,” Badjie said. “I have the Quran with me.”

Some of the 45,000 people who had fled the tiny country during the crisis began to return.

The nation of 1.9 million, which promotes itself to overseas tourists as “the Smiling Coast of Africa, has been a major source of migrants heading toward Europe because of the situation at home.

— Additional reporting by Associated Press