Newsone reports that The Gambia Vice President Badara Alieu Joof has died of illness in India, President Adama Barrow said on Wednesday, January 18, 2023.
The 65-year-old Joof was appointed vice president of the West African country in 2022. He previously served as education minister from 2017 to 2022.
President Barrow said on Twitter that Joof had died “after a short illness”, without providing further detail, including when he died.
The Gambia’s Vice President Badara Joof delivers a speech at the leaders summit of the COP27 climate conference in Egypt on November 7, 2022 [File: Ahmad Gharabali/AFP]
Joof had left The Gambia about three weeks ago to seek medical treatment and had not been seen in public for months before the trip.
The vice president was the fourth deputy to serve under Barrow since his historic win in 2016 against former strongman Yahya Jammeh and swearing-in the following year, and the second since the president won re-election in 2021.
Meanwhile, Newsone Nigeria reports that the late vice president previously worked in the Gambian civil service and later in the World Bank as an Education Specialist for West and Central Africa, transmitting his experience there to his time as minister of higher education, research, science, and technology.