Gambia has announced its withdrawal from the Commonwealth, barely six weeks before the Prince of Wales is due to open the club's biennial summit.
President Yahya Jammeh, a despot who seized power in the West African state almost 20 years ago, became the first leader to pull out of the Commonwealth unilaterally since President Robert Mugabe chose to withdraw Zimbabwe in 2003.
Mr Jammeh, who claims to have personally discovered a cure for Aids, has been accused of widespread human rights abuses, notably by ordering a national campaign against "witches".
His government announced last night that Gambia had "withdrawn its membership of the British Commonwealth and decided that the Gambia will never be a member of any neo-colonial institution and will never be a party to any institution that represents an extension of colonialism".
The sudden departure of one of the Commonwealth's African members is an unexpected blow on the eve of a summit due to be held in Sri Lanka on Nov 16. Unusually, the Queen will not attend; instead the gathering will be opened by the Prince of Wales who will be joined by David Cameron and about 50 other heads of government.
On a continent famous for its wayward leaders, Mr Jammeh stands out for his sheer eccentricity.
The man who likes to be called "His Excellency Sheikh Professor Doctor President" has acted entirely in character by announcing his country's departure from the Commonwealth, apparently on a whim.
This display of caprice is in keeping with the way he has governed his tiny and tormented nation.
It was only last year that Mr Jammeh chose to mark the Muslim festival of Eid by announcing that 38 prisoners with capital sentences would all be shot. Traditionally, this celebration at the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan is supposed to be marked by gestures of clemency.
Mr Jammeh, typically, chose to invert the custom. But in another display of presidential caprice, he later lifted the threat and ordered a stay of execution.
On Aug 19 last year, however, Mr Jammeh announced that capital sentences would be carried out "to the letter", adding: "There is no way my government will allow 99 per cent of the population to be held to ransom by criminals". Four days later, eight men and one woman held in Mile 2 jail near Gambia's capital, Banjul, were executed by firing squad.
Last month, speaking at the UN, he declared that homosexuals were "very evil" and posed the greatest single threat to human existence. All homosexuals should leave Gambia, he added, and any who disobeyed this order would be beheaded.
Mr Jammeh seized power 19 years ago when he was a 29-year-old Lieutenant.
His predecessor, Sir Dawda Jawara, had long experience of being overthrown: the first time this happened, Sir Dawda was toppled while attending the wedding of Prince Charles and Princess Diana in London in 1981. When the military coup of 1994 took place, Lt Jammeh, as he then was, managed to be his successor by the simple expedient of being the first army officer to reach the presidential palace in Banjul.
Since then, Mr Jammeh's rule over Gambia, a tiny enclave within Senegal which achieved independence from Britain in 1965, has become of steadily greater concern to human rights organisations and Western governments.
One United Nations official based in Africa has privately questioned the president's sanity.
In 2007, Mr Jammeh announced that a potion he made from local herbs was a cure for Aids. Some Gambians who were HIV-positive were persuaded to abandon the anti-retroviral drugs that really do prevent full-blown Aids and adopt the president's invention instead. What became of them is unclear.
In 2009, Mr Jammeh declared that someone had killed his aunt by casting a malign spell over her. He announced a national campaign against "witchcraft" designed to rid his country of this evil.
About 1,000 alleged "witches" were then rounded up across Gambia. Once in prison, many suffered beatings and some were forced to drink hallucinogenic potions to supposedly remove their wicked powers. Some are believed to have suffered this treatment at Mr Jammeh's personal farm.
Last year, Mr Jammeh declared that all his critics could "go to hell", adding: "Those who accuse me of human rights abuses, I leave them to Allah."
The Foreign Office appeared to be taken by surprise by his decision to leave the Commonwealth, saying only: "Decisions on Commonwealth membership are a matter for each member government. We would very much regret Gambia, or any other country, deciding to leave the Commonwealth."
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