Banjul, Gambia - The government of Gambia has given Libyan diplomats and citizens resident in the country to leave within 72 hours, as it also froze all Libyan investments in the country, the state-owned radio and television services announced here Saturday. According to a news release from State House, the directive is binding until a lasting solution is found to the political unrest in Libya. The Gambian government said its decision followed the political unrest in the north African country, where its leader, Mouammar Kadhafi has refused to step down. Libyan investments frozen by the Gambian government included six hotels, one park (playing ground), agriculture garden, one bank and one road construction company. The first batch of Libyans left the country Saturday for Dakar, Senegal, while others, including senior officials at the Libyan Embassy in Banjul, are expected to leave Sunday, sources told PANA.

The Gambia government has deployed Police Intervention Unit officers to all Libya’s investment offices in the country and all the management has been changed, the sources added.

“This morning we came to work and we found the Police Intervention Unit officers with guns in the office and the Libyan diplomat told us to wait outside. He later came out and told us they are leaving the country for Senegal and the others have gone ahead and he is staying to pay our benefits,” a local security guard at the Libyan Embassy in Banjul, name withheld, told PANA. 

PANA recalled that in March, the government of the Gambia issued a statement calling on Gaddafi to step down.

Pana 24/04/2011