Troops secure strategic points in The Gambia

West African troops entered The Gambia on Sunday to secure President Adama Barrow’s arrival from neighbouring Senegal, as controversy erupted over the assurances offered to Yahya Jammeh to guarantee his exit.

Jammeh flew out of The Gambia on Saturday, ending 22 years at the helm of the tiny West African nation, and landed in Equatorial Guinea a few hours later where he is expected to settle with his family.

The Senegalese general leading a joint force of troops from five African nations said soldiers had nonetheless entered The Gambia to “control strategic points to ensure the safety of the population and facilitate ... Barrow’s assumption of his role”.

Marcel Alain de Souza, a top official with the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas), which organised the deployment, said pro-Jammeh elements remained on the ground and had fired their guns as troops crossed the border. “They were neutralised,” he said, without elaborating.

De Souza said the country “could not be left open” for long, however, and that Barrow had to be in place “as soon as possible”. “A country must have a government, but the security conditions required the troops we have sent to secure Banjul and other towns,” he said.

The choice of Equatorial Guinea for his exile helped ease concerns that Jammeh might interfere in his nation’s politics if he rather stayed in Guinea, whose border is not far from The Gambia’s eastern region.

Jammeh controlled certain sections of the security forces, and his long tenure was marked

A COUNTRY NEEDS A GOVERNMENT, BUT THE CONDITIONS REQUIRED THE TROOPS TO SECURE BANJUL AND TOWNS

by systematic rights abuses, including extrajudicial killings and arbitrary detention.

But critics have raised concerns over the wording of a statement issued by the UN, Ecowas and the AU that seemed to offer Jammeh comfortable guarantees for his future. “No legislative measures” would be taken that would infringe the “dignity, security, safety and rights” of Jammeh or his family, it said, noting he could return when he pleased and that property “lawfully” belonging to him would not be seized.