Did you know that it is a federal offense in the United States to attempt a coup d’etat in a foreign country?

Two U.S. citizens faced federal judges on Monday for their role in last week’s attempt to overthrow the government in the Gambia. One of the two men planned to become the country’s new leader.

According to the criminal complaint filed on Sunday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota, the two men — Cherno Njie, 57, and Papa Faal, 46 — separately left the United States last month to travel to the Gambia. Once there, they allegedly joined with another 8 to 12 co-conspirators as part of an attempt to launch a coup against Gambia President Yayah Jammeh. Both Njie and Faal hold dual U.S. and Gambian citizenship.

Not only that, but it has been illegal for a very long time.

Both men are charged with violating the Neutrality Act, a 1794 law that makes it illegal for an American to prepare an attack on a country the U.S. is at peace with, as well as arming themselves in order to violate that law. The last time the law was invoked was in 2007, when 10 men were accused of attempting to overthrow the government of Laos. The charges in the Laos case were later dropped.

For those who don’t know, The Gambia is a small, sort-of-squirmy-shaped country in west Africa, which basically consists of the two banks of the Gambia River. Aside from a bit of Atlantic coastline, the country is completely surrounded¹ by Senegal, which is also named after a river.

I’m not sure why the country has “the” in its name, i.e. why it’s called “The Gambia” instead of just “Gambia.” Some confusion has surrounded other countries’ names, as well—Sudan and Ukraine come to mind².

As far as plotting a coup in The Gambia goes, the country’s president sounds like a real piece of work (interpret that as you will.) He’s been in power there since a 1994 coup of his own, he has some unconventional (to put it charitably) views on pharmacology, and he really, really, really, really does not like gay people. I suppose I understand why we don’t want U.S. citizens going over there on their own and plotting coups, though. Maybe that’s what letters of marque and reprisal are for?³

Photo credit: Central Intelligence Agency [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

1. The two countries briefly formed a confederation in the 1980’s cleverly titled “Senegambia.”

2. The article linked to Ukraine just there says that, shortly before independence from the UK, the Gambian prime minister instructed UK officials to refer to the new country as “The Gambia,” with “The” being in title case. The stated reason was to avoid confusion with the newly-independent Zambia, which had been Northern Rhodesia up to that point.

3. Not really, but you never hear about those anymore. They kind of went out of style in the early 1800’s, I think.