Off the wire
• Roundup: UN refugee agency focuses on aiding displaced as Iraqi offensive moves to west Mosul  • Nearly quarter of Austrian school students speak foreign conversational language: report  • Ecuador presidential candidate calls for calm while waiting for results  • Attacks on journalists in Brazil up 60 pct in 2016  • Austrian court approves extradition of Ukrainian tycoon to U.S.: media  • Journalists face unprecedented risk as insurgent, criminal groups spread globally  • Chicago agricultural commodities settle mixed  • Food crisis could worse with poor rainy season in Somalia, UN agency warns  • International community should not take European peace for granted, UN chief warns  • Chinese envoy calls for civilization exchanges for conflict settlement in Europe  
You are here: 　 Home

Gambia detains intellegence chiefs

Xinhua, February 22, 2017 Adjust font size:

Gambian authorities confirmed on Tuesday the arrest of two former spy chiefs believed to be former president Yaya Jammeh's henchmen.

Yankuba Badjie, Director General of National Intelligence Agency (NIA), and Sheikh Omar Jeng, Director of Operations in the agency, were arrested Monday night, police sources confirmed to Xinhua on Tuesday.

The two men are currently being detained by the police at the Brusubi Police Station, some 18 kilometers from the capital Banjul, said police spokesman Foday Conta.

However, the authorities have declined to comment on the reasons for arrest, claiming that the matter is under investigation.

Badjie was fired from his post a few days after Jammeh stepped down and left the country for Equatorial Guinea, bringing an end to the political crisis that lasted for two months following Jammeh's rejection of losing the presidential election.

The NIA has over the past two decades been accused of human rights violations, including enforced disappearances, sexual abuse of women, torture, arbitrary detention and killing.

The new government said it intends to change the name to State Intelligence Services as part of the reform. Endit