Gambia Holds Man Over Suspected Plot on U.S. Envoy
Updated 2:42 PM ET January 12, 2003


BANJUL, Gambia (Reuters) - Gambia said Sunday that a foreign man had
been arrested over a suspected plot to kill the United States ambassador
in the West African country.

Interior Minister Ousman Badjie told Reuters the man was arrested at a
motel outside the capital Banjul Thursday after a tip off.

Security sources said that investigators had also arrived from the
United States to help their Gambian counterparts in the questioning.

"Presently the man is helping security agents in their investigations. I
do not want to preempt the interrogation so I cannot tell you his
nationality," Badjie said.

Badjie said that the man being questioned was not an African.

U.S. embassy officials were not immediately available for comment.

Impoverished Gambia, a former British colony, is a sliver of a country
almost surrounded by Senegal. It survives on groundnuts, fishing and
tourism.

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