 |
| Former Gambian dictator Yahya Jammeh. The United States said Monday it would forbid his entry and that of his family into the country over corruption during his 22-year rule. |
Under a US law that
bans foreign officials involved in "significant" corruption or human
rights abuses, the State Department said it was blacklisting Jammeh as
well as his wife Zineb Jammeh, and his daughter and son.
Jammeh
trained at a military base in Alabama before seizing power in 1994 and
while president bought a mansion in the Washington suburb of Potomac,
Maryland, from basketball star Calbert Cheaney, according to reports at
the time.
"The United States is committed to combating
corruption, increasing respect for human rights and fundamental
freedoms, and promoting good governance globally," the State Department
said in a statement.
GREATER TRANSPARENCY
"The
United States stands with the government of The Gambia, its people and
civil society in support of The Gambia's transition towards greater
transparency, accountability and democratic governance, for the benefit
of all Gambians," it said.
Jammeh ruled with an iron
fist over The Gambia, the smallest land-based country in Africa, but he
unexpectedly lost an election in December 2016 to the opposition leader,
Adama Barrow.
Jammeh fled the next month into
self-imposed exile after his attempts to hold on to power brought
intervention from neighbouring countries.
Barrow, now
the president, has championed a truth panel modelled on post-apartheid
South Africa to shed light on executions, torture, rape and other crimes
under Jammeh's rule.