The Gambia’s Vice President Badara Alieu Joof has died of illness in India, President Adama Barrow said on Wednesday.

Joof, 65, was appointed vice president of the West African country in 2022. He previously served as education minister from 2017 to 2022.

Barrow said on Twitter that Joof had died “after a short illness”, without providing further detail, including when he died.

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 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.

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.