Brief history The Gambia is a former British Crown colony and became an independent state in August 1965. Being a strip of land along the Gambia river delta, it had been contested between France and the British empire for centuries and is enclosed by Senegal. With that country, a confederation was formed in the eighties of last century, known as Senegambia and effectively the military was controlled by Senegal. After a military coupe d'Etat, the current ruler, Yahya Jammeh came to power and has been re-elected several times.
The armed forces do not amount to much. They have used two consecutive Il-62M aircraft for transport and acquired a single Su-25 from Georgia. Two agricultural AT-802 followed in 2005 and the latest aircraft are a B727 and a former German Luftwaffe CL-601, both used for VIP transport by the government.
