Gambia’s former president,
Yahya Jammeh will now leave Banjul on Saturday with President Alpha Conde of
Guinea, to begin a new life in exile. This followed Friday’s final peace move
by Conde and Mauritania’s President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz. The two West
African leaders traveled to Banjul to persuade the long-ruling Jammeh to leave
peacefully before West African forces pounced on him.
In a statement issued on
state TV Friday night, Jammeh announced that he was stepping down, a
superfluous announcement as he was already no more the leader, having been
denied recognition by the world.
All indications are
that Jammeh will be going into exile in
Guinea.
A senior adviser to new
President Adama Barrow said talks to finalize the exile deal were holding up
his exit.
“I can assure you that he
has agreed to leave,” Mai Ahmad Fatty, Barrow’s special advisor, told Reuters
in Senegal’s capital Dakar. He could not say where Jammeh would go into exile.
President of The Gambia,
Adama Barrow had earlier confirmed Yahya Jammeh’s stepping down.
Barrow, on his Twitter
handle on Friday, @adama_barrow said: “I would like to inform you that Yahya
Jammeh has agreed to step down.
“He is scheduled to depart
Gambia today. #NewGambia.”
Barrow on Thursday took
the oath of office as Gambia’s new president.
He was sworn-in about 5
p.m. Senegalese time at the Gambian High Commission in Dakar, Senegal.
Barrow succeeded Yahya
Jammeh, who lost in the Dec. 1 presidential election and refused to vacate
office when his term expired midnight on Thursday.
Gambia’s Chief of Defence,
Ousman Badjie, on Friday pledged loyalty to President Barrow.
“West African troops that
crossed from neighboring Senegal into Gambia to help unseat Jammeh would be
welcomed “with a cup of tea,’’ said Badjie.
ECOWAS armies halted
Operation Restore Democracy aimed at installing the country’s new president,
Adama Barrow, on Thursday so regional leaders could make one last attempt to
convince long-time ruler Yahya Jammeh to step aside.
In Dakar, the Nigerian
force Commander, Operation Restore Democracy,
Air Commodore Tajudeen Yusuf,
said the ECOWAS forces would not let down their guard, in spite of negotiations
for the former Gambian president, Alhaji Yahaya Jammeh to leave office.
He said the troops are
awaiting briefing by the political leaders.
Yusuf made the statement
while briefing journalists in Dakar, on Friday.
“Even if he quits we are
not letting down our guard, our mandate is to restore peace in Gambia.
“We have been on standby,
and the troops are still on a very high alert, depending on the outcome of
political negotiations.
“We are not letting down
our guard; our mandate is to restore democracy in Gambia,’’ Yusuf said.
Yusuf added that the
mandate given to them was to restore peace and nothing else.
He promised to carry out
his responsibilities professionally while waiting for a further directive from
the political masters.
Jammeh, in power since a
1994 coup, initially conceded defeat to Barrow following a Dec. 1 election
before back-tracking, saying the vote was flawed.
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