Vice President Badara Alieu Joof of The Gambia has died of illness in India, according to President Adama Barrow Wednesday January 18.
In 2022, the West African nation’s 65-year-old Joof was appointed vice president of the West African country. Prior to this, from 2017 to 2022, he served as the education minister.
Without revealing any other information, such as the exact time of death, The Gambian president stated on Twitter that Badara Alieu Joof had died “after a short illness.”
The vice president had left The Gambia about three weeks ago to seek medical treatment and had not been seen in public for months before the trip.
Joof was the second deputy to hold office since the president’s reelection in 2021 and the fourth to serve under Barrow since his historic victory over former strongman Yahya Jammeh in 2016.
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.
Author-Roberta Appiah
