This archive report was first published on 8 August 2019.
On August 7, 2019, a court martial in The Gambia sentenced two soldiers to three years in jail for plotting to overthrow the government of President Adama Barrow.
The pair, Sulayman Badjie and Lamin Kujabi, had used a WhatsApp chat group called 'The True Friends' to discuss ways of staging a coup with other members of the Gambian army while on a 2017 peacekeeping mission in Darfur in Sudan.
Barrow took office in January 2017 after a shock election win against former president Yahya Jammeh, who ruled the tiny West African state for 22 years.
"Two soldiers were today convicted and sentenced to three-years imprisonment on various criminal offences," army spokesperson Major Lamin Sanyang told AFP.
Defence barrister Omar Susso from the National Legal Aid Agency said his clients were convicted of mutiny and conspiracy to commit mutiny and would be considering filing an appeal at The Gambia Court of Appeal.
