THE GAMBIA, a sliver of a state no wider than 48km (30 miles)—and about seven times as long—seldom attracts much attention from the outside world. Apart from a short coast with white, sandy beaches, which along with a bustling sex trade catering to middle-aged women provide the basis of a small tourism industry, it is entirely surrounded by Senegal.

Its president, Yahya Jammeh, who has run the desperately poor country since he took power in a coup in 1994, has little to commend him. Although he has repeatedly won elections since seizing power, few other than the notoriously blinkered observers of the African Union think they were free or fair. So dismal is the political climate that most other regional groups have given up bothering to send monitors.

Mr Jammeh’s police are accused by human-rights groups of torturing opposition activists and of the disappearance of journalists. More recently, his presidential guards and intelligence agents have been busily arresting and torturing people believed to be gay or lesbian, in line with a new law which threatens life imprisonment for those guilty of “aggravated homosexuality”, whatever that may be.

Few, it seems then, would lament his downfall. Yet on December 30th, instead of a popular uprising such as the one in October that felled Blaise Compaoré, the longtime ruler of Burkina Faso, Mr Jammeh was faced with a shoestring coup.

This effort to unseat him proved so amateurish that it was quickly quashed. According to a criminal complaint filed by America’s FBI against two of the coup plotters—both American citizens of Gambian ancestory—as few as ten or 12 expatriate Gambians from America, Britain and Germany took part. Beyond their hopeless belief that a handful of armed men could seize power without violence, their bumbling preparations might have been comical had lives not been lost.

The coup participants took some steps to conceal their activities, such as using noms de guerre—one took the code name “Fox”, another “Dave”—and keeping maps in a manila folder on which was handwritten “top secret”, with the words underlined in black ink. Yet their plan was also online and could be accessed through a link sent around by e-mail, an obvious vulnerability. In a briefing to cabinet members Mr Jammeh said, “We were able to get all that they had in their computer; we had all the information about their plans.”

A spreadsheet purporting to list their needs suggests they had budgeted little more than $220,000 for weapons, airline tickets and the like. A line item listing two sniper rifles at a cost of $4,000 had an appended note saying “NOT really necessary but could be very useful.” Indeed.

It is not yet clear how many of the conspirators were killed, nor whether they had any justification for believing that units of the Gambian army would turn their coats. Taking no chances Mr Jammeh has been quick to clamp down. Local media reports suggest a string of army officers and their family members have been arrested. Sensibly most have been quick to pledge their loyalty. On January 5th soldiers marched bearing banners announcing “Gambians soldiers are behind you President Jammeh”. In case of doubt the army chief said in a speech: “We love you, Your Excellency, and this bond of love and leadership is eternal.”