Coalition troops help peaceful transition in Gambia

GAMBIA: Gambia’s elite republican guard was ordered to disarm yesterday ’’to avoid an emerging conflict’’ as foreign troops rolled into the capital.

A soldier at State House in Banjul said he and his comrades had surrendered their weapons at the palace armoury less than 48 hours after Yahya Jammeh, the ousted president, was forced into exile by the threat of an invasion.

‘‘Every soldier has to hand in their guns,’’ he said.

Columns of armoured vehicles reached the capital before sunset, where they were met with cheers and crowds dancing in the street.

Halifa Sallah, a spokesman for Adama Barrow, Jammeh’s successor, said the soldiers from the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) would collaborate with Gambia’s armed forces. Fighter jets had earlier roared over the capital in a show of force.

Hundreds of people had gathered at Banjul airport to witness Jammeh’s departure.

Some cheered as his plane took off, bound for Guinea – where he was expected to stop over before travelling on, possibly to Equatorial Guinea – while others sobbed and wailed.

The former army officer seized power in a bloodless coup in 1994 and once pledged to lead Gambia for a billion years.

He triggered a military showdown with Ecowas after he rejected the results of the December 1 election, which Barrow won with 45 per cent of the vote.

The Ecowas soldiers said they had advanced on the capital to protect and install Barrow as president.

He was still abroad yesterday and had yet to appoint a cabinet.

General Ousman Badjie, head of Gambia’s armed forces, had earlier said his soldiers would not fight if the Ecowas troops advanced.

He joined the celebrations in the street after Barrow used his inaugural address to demand a public show of loyalty.

Barrow, who used to work as a security guard at an Argos catalogue store in north London, is the leader of a coalition which seemed split yesterday over the terms which Jammeh had negotiated for his departure.

A joint communique from Ecowas, the African Union and the United Nations said Jammeh and his family would be afforded the privileges befitting a former president, allowed to keep his lawfully acquired assets and spared any ‘‘harassment or witch-hunting’’.

However, Mankeur Ndiaye, Senegal’s foreign minister, said the deal was not binding.

’’President Jammeh and his team concocted a declaration that gave him every guarantee, essentially impunity,’’ he added. ‘‘This declaration was signed by no-one.’’ – The Times