Following reports that
Gambian security officials detained three refugees from Guinea Bissau, former army chief, elections chief, and ousted interior
minister, President’s Jammeh’s office said “they are welcomed.”
In a short statement from
State House in Banjul, the government confirmed that Fernando Gomes, former
interior minister and Jose Zamore Induta, former chief of defence staff are
have indeed sought refuge in the country.
“The Government of The Gambia welcomes them to stay in the country, since they are not criminals and are good citizens of ECOWAS,” a May 31 statement said, two days after the France-based news agency quoted a senior immigration official as saying the three were being “detained for security reasons.”
Gambia's immigration department
spokesperson Ba Ensa Jawara told AFP the three, who were reported to have
passed through Senegal's southern Casamance region, "arrived in the
country early on Saturday morning and are currently being held".
Former army chief Jose Zamora
Induta, elections commission chief Desejado Da Costa and Fernando Gomes, who
was interior minister in the government overthrown in the country's latest coup
last month, fled Guinea-Bissau last weekend.
They had earlier sought refuge in
the European Union mission in Bissau following the April 12 coup, which aborted
a presidential election ahead of a second round of voting.
Former army chief, Induta was ousted
in 2010 by General Antonio Indjai, the man considered to be behind the latest
coup in that country.
With the backing of the sub-regional
grouping, ECOWAS, transitional authorities formed a new government a
fourthnight ago. A regional peace force
has also started deploying in the country in an attempt to help the
transitional authorities stabilise it and organise elections in a year.
By Modou S. Joof
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