UNITED NATIONS: The UN Security Council is condemning the coup attempt against “the legal and democratic institutions” in Gambia.

Chad’s UN Ambassador Mahamat Zene, the current council president, told reporters after a closed-door briefing Wednesday by UN political chief Jeffrey Feltman that members “welcomed the normalization of the situation in the country.”

Heavy gunfire rang out Tuesday near the presidential palace in the tiny West African nation while President Yahya Jammeh, who came to power in a 1994 coup when he was 29 years old, was in France. He has reportedly returned to Gambia.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also reiterated the UN’s “principled condemnation of all attempts to seize power through unconstitutional means,” spokesman Farhan Haq said.