Gambia's former vice president passes away

Email|Print|Comments       twitter     facebook     Sina Microblog     reddit    

Gambia's former vice president and ex-leader of the Gambia People's Party (GPP) Assan Musa Camara died on Sunday at the age of 90, according to official sources.

Camara, a veteran politician, briefly acted as president during the week-long mayhem of the abortive 1981 coup led by the late Kukoi Samba Sanyang.

He served as vice president in the late 1970s and early 1980s. After the events that followed the 1981 coup, former president Sir Dawda Jawara made a cabinet reshuffle that excluded Camara, who later formed his opposition Gambia People's Party and ran for the presidency in 1987.

His party ran again in the general elections of 1992.

After Jawara was overthrown by the military in 1994, Camara receded into private life due to a Decree 89 that banned him and others from participating in party politics.

When the ban was lifted in 2001, he decided not to rejuvenate the GPP, but rather throw his weight behind the United Democratic Party and Progressive Peace and Prosperity party coalition of that year's election.

Camara played a pivotal role in the formation and sustainability of a new opposition coalition known as NADD in 2005, eventually becoming its national chairman.

When efforts to unite the new opposition failed, which led to the departure of some political parties from the group, Camara, out of frustration over the need of a united opposition, resigned, and has since been absent from active party politics due to his ill condition.

• Gambia to introduce biometric passport
• Gambia's former senior security chiefs sentenced for treason
• Gambia recognizes Libyan Transitional Council
• Anti-paedophilia group to launch massive campaign in Gambia
• More than 26,000 people affected by floods in Gambia
• Gambia's Smile Initiative serves elderly in communities
• Gambian court rejects bid to drop charges against alleged coup plotters
• Gambia calls for equity in world financial decision-making, regulation
• Gambia to be linked to under sea cable network by 2011
• IMF report: Gambia maintains macroeconomic stability

We Recommend

• Pakistan suffers desperate shortage of water
• Lanzhou MAC conducts actual-troop live-ammunition drill
• Heritage train ride across western Kosovo
• Heavy rain hits Hangzhou, causing traffic jam
• Students wade through water to school
• Dabaiyi wedding ceremony in China's Yunnan
• Harbin named Chinese city with most beautiful women
• Weekly Sports Photos: Bale transfers to Real Madrid
• Funniest photos of sport stars as kids