West African troops move into Gambian capital to secure new leader’s arrival
Latest update : 23/01/2017
Gambia's capital was awaiting the arrival of the country's new leader Adama Barrow as West African troops moved to secure the capital, just hours after Yahya Jammeh, the authoritarian ruler of 22 years, flew into exile.
West African military forces were seen entering the Gambian presidential compound in the country’s capital on Sunday as they sought to secure new President Adama Barrow’s arrival before he takes office. Yahya Jammeh, who led Gambia for 22 years but refused to accept defeat in the December 1st presidential election, flew out of Banjul late on Saturday en route to Equatorial Guinea as the regional force threatened to intervene.
Barrow is waiting to get the green light from the ECOWAS forces before he returns to Banjul. “I can’t give a precise date or time, but it will be very soon,” he told France 24 in an exclusive interview.
The regional operation was launched late on Thursday after Barrow was sworn in as president at Gambia’s embassy in neighbouring Senegal, but it was then halted to give Jammeh one last chance to leave peacefully.The forces entered Gambia shortly after his departure in order to secure Banjul, ahead of Barrow's arrival.
On Sunday, officials in Equatorial Guinea refused to comment on whether Jammeh had arrived in the country. But in a statement, Equatorial Guinea’s opposition denounced the presence of Jammeh, whose 22-year reign was marked by systematic human rights abuses, on their soil. Equatorial Guinea is not a state party to the International Criminal Court.
Jammeh's dramatic about-face on his election loss to Barrow, at first conceding and then challenging the vote, appeared to be the final straw for the international community, which had been alarmed by his moves in recent years to declare an Islamic republic and leave the Commonwealth and the ICC.
On Sunday, Barrow warned that state resources appeared to have been depleted when Jammeh fled.
“According to information we received, there is no money in the coffers. It’s what we have been told, but the day we actually take office we will clarify all of it,” Barrow told Senegalese radio station RFM.
"After 22 years of fear, Gambians now have a unique opportunity to become a model for human rights in West Africa," Amnesty International's deputy director for West and Central Africa, Steve Cockburn, said in a statement Sunday.
(FRANCE 24 with REUTERS, AP)
http://m.france24.com/en/20170122-west-african-troops-move-gambian-capital-secure-new-leader-arrival