THE GAMBIA: Mercenary Presented to Press; Says Trained in Libya Paris AFP AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE Wednesday, November 13, 1996 Eight Gambian mercenaries who took part in an attack on a Gambian Army camp at the end of last week, arrived from Liberia with the aim of destabilising the regime of President Yahya Jammeh, one of them confessed Tuesday (12 November). The man, Yaya Drameh who was taken prisoner after the attack Friday (8 November) on Farafeni camp in eastern Gambia, said he was among 40 Gambians, trained in Libya, who had served in the Liberia civil war on the side of warlord Charles Taylor. He said they also took orders from Kukoi Samba Sanyang, a Gambian, who fled to Liberia after leading a failed coup in July 1981 against former president Sir Dawda Jawara. Drameh was presented to the press Tuesday (12 November) night at the Banjul Army Headquarters, at the same time as another Gambian mercenary Mballo Kante who was wounded in the leg during the Farafeni attack. Drameh who speaks with a strong Liberian accent, said the eight Gambians went in March to Abidjan at the behest of Kukoi and from there they travelled by train to Senegal via Bamako. They hid on an island in the Sine-Saloum region of central Senegal and after losing touch with Kukoi, who they said was established in Dakar and earned his living from arms dealing, the eight decided to go launch their own guerrilla war in Gambia, he said. Drameh said they had chosen Abdoulie Sonko - who is now on the run - as their leader in place of Kukoi. He said they attacked Farafeni camp in order to obtain weapons and recruit young Gambians to their fledgling rebel army. He said Kukoi "gets financial support from the Senegalese authorities" but he refused to be more specific. Five of the mercenaries who attacked the Farafeni camp - 150 kilometres (95 miles) east of Banjul - which is one of the biggest in Gambia, were still on the run on Tuesday. Another who was wounded is in hospital at Kaolack in Senegal. Gambian troop reinforcements, sent to Farafeni recovered a lorry packed with weapons which the mercenaries had stolen from the camp's munitions depot. The camp commander Captain Birm Saine who was taken hostage in the attack said over the weekend that the attackers were Kukoi's men. Reliable sources said Kukoi had lately fled Dakar for Guinea-Bissau.