Soldiers mass at Gambia border
GAMBIAN president-elect Adama Barrow was to be sworn yesterday at the country’s embassy in Senegal, as African troops massed at the border to force incumbent Yahya Jammeh to quit after his election defeat.
The United Nations Security Council was to vote later yesterday on endorsing a west African military intervention as Senegal, Nigeria and Ghana dispatched hundreds of troops and fighter jets to Gambia’s border with Senegal.
Shops were shuttered and streets quiet in and around the capital Banjul with tour operators evacuating hundreds of tourists from the tiny country’s popular beach resorts.
The army chief however has insisted his soldiers would not get involved in a “political dispute” nor prevent foreign forces from entering the west African nation.
Barrow, a real-estate agent turned politician who won a presidential vote on December 1, flew to Senegal on January 15 after weeks of rising tension over Jammeh’s steady refusal to step down.
At the helm of the former British colony for 22 years, Jammeh’s mandate expired at midnight GMT with no sign of him stepping down. He has attempted instead to block Barrow’s inauguration with a court ruling and by declaring a state of emergency.
But Barrow’s spokesman Halifa Sallah said that the inauguration would go ahead. “It is going to take place at the Gambian Embassy in Dakar ... at 4pm [1600 GMT],” he said.
Jammeh initially acknowledged Barrow as the victor in December elections, but later rejected the result, this CONTINUED
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