Former Gambia leader agrees to cede power

Regional coalition pressures reluctant Yahyah Jammeh.

BANJUL, GAMBIA — Defeated Gambian leader Yahya Jammeh ha s a g re e d t o c e de power to the country’s newly inaugurated leader, a Senegalese government official confirmed late Friday.

Final arrangements were being made to the agreement, the official said, speaking on condition of ano - nymity because of lack of authorization to speak to the press. The move should allow Adama Barrow, who was elected last month and has been waiting in neighboring Senegal, to return home.

Jammeh was rapidly losing any claim to power, as the chief of Gambia’s defense forces pledged his allegiance to Barrow and said Gambian forces would not put up a fight.

The leaders of Guinea and Mauritania arrived in Gambia earlier Friday to persuade Jammeh to cede power in the West African nation, while a re gi onal mili t ar y force awaited orders to roll into the capital and force him from the office he held for 22 years.

B a r r o w wa s s wo r n i n Thursday at the Gambian Embassy in Senegal for his safety, and the U.N. Security Council voted unanimously to approve the regional military intervention.

Defense forces chief Ousmane Badjie told The Associated Press that Gambia’s security services all support Barrow and would not fight the regional force.

“You cannot push us to war for an issue we can solve politically,” Badjie said. “We don’t see any reason to fight.”

With the security forces abandoning him and his Cabinet dissolved, Jammeh was increasingly isolated during the last-minute talks at his official residence in the capital, Banjul, with the Guin- ean and Mauritanian leaders.

The West African regional f o r c e , i n c l u d i n g t a n k s , moved in without facing any resistance, said Marcel Alain de Souza, chairman of the West African regional bloc, ECOWAS.

The regional force includes troops from Senegal, Ghana, Nigeria, Togo and Mali, and they moved in after Barrow’s inauguration and the U.N. vote.

Guinean President Alpha Conde was in Banjul with M a u r i t a n i a n P r e s i d e n t Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz. Mauritania has been mentioned as a possible home in exile for Jammeh.

Conde will offer Jammeh the chance to step down peacefully, de Souza said.

Jammeh had agreed to step down but has demanded amnesty for any crimes he may have committed during his 22 years in power and wa n t e d t o s t ay i n G a mbia, in his home village of Kanilai, de Souza said. Those demands are not acceptable to ECOWAS, he added.