President Yahya Jammeh of The GambiaThe strong man of The Gambia, Yahya Jammeh, has finally bowed out and would be travelling out the country on Saturday, reports said.
“I have decided today in good conscience to relinquish the mantle of leadership of this great nation with infinite gratitude to all Gambians. I promise before Allah and the entire nation that all the issues we currently face will be resolved peacefully. Not necessary that a single drop of blood be shed,” Jammeh told state television.
Jammeh, who was beaten by real estate mogul, Adama Barrow, had tried to put up a fight but decided to bow out after last minute negotiations with the Presidents of Guinea and Mauritania and threats by ECOMOG forces that he would be forced to go should he try to cling to power.
He would be travelling to Guinea Conakry on Saturday morning, sources said. Barrow would assume office in Banjul on Saturday afternoon.
On Friday, Barrow met with Gambians in Senegal where he was sworn into office at the Gambian embassy in Dakar on Thursday.
West African leaders on Friday had extended a deadline for Gambia’s longtime leader to leave office or face action by a regional military force to install President Barrow, the winner of an election in December.
According to Reuters, Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz and Guinean President Alpha Conde flew to the capital Banjul on Friday to try to persuade Jammeh to cede power peacefully.
Troops spearheaded by Senegal and Nigeria had crossed into Gambia on Thursday at the request of Barrow, who was sworn in on Thursday at Gambia’s embassy in Dakar as Jammeh refused to step down.
But no further military action would take place until negotiations are complete, sources in the regional organisation ECOWAS said.
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 and demanding a new ballot.
Diplomats said regional leaders had been close to a deal before but talks broke down over where Jammeh goes. While Barrow’s aides say Jammeh can remain in the country on his Kanilai estate, Senegal insisted he leave Gambia, diplomats told Reuters.
The news agency wrote:
Jammeh’s estate is heavily fortified, witnesses say, and just 1 km from Senegal’s border.
“There is a real possibility this could work. I don’t think he is going the (Saddam) Hussein route,” said a regional diplomat, referring to the Iraqi leader who was arrested in 2003 following an invasion, tried and hanged.
One of Africa’s smallest countries, Gambia is of little strategic significance. But if a peaceful transition of power fails, it would be a setback for the advance of democracy in Africa, a continent where autocrats have often held sway since the end of Western colonial rule
Jammeh, who once vowed to rule Gambia “for a billion years”, earned a reputation for torturing and killing perceived opponents. He pulled Gambia out of the Commonwealth in 2013 and declared the country an Islamic state in 2015.
REFUGEES FLEE TO SENEGAL
Gambia’s only land border is with Senegal and the regional coalition, which ECOWAS says involves 7,000 troops, which is backed by tanks and warplanes, entered from the southeast, southwest and north.
U.N. officials including Mohammed Ibn Chambas, U.N. Special Representative for West Africa and the Sahel, were already in Banjul.
Streets in the capital were mostly deserted on Friday and shops, restaurants and petrol stations were shut.
The U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said about 45,000 people, mainly children, have fled to Senegal since Jan. 1. It cited figures from the Senegalese government.
Residents near the border said army defectors were among them and one resident said he saw four Gambian military vehicles crossing into Senegal overnight.
Thousands of tourists have also left the country. Gambia, with its Atlantic beaches, is a popular holiday destination for Europeans and tourism is a mainstay of an economy otherwise reliant on peanut production and remittances from overseas.
Barrow has been recognised as Gambia’s new president by world powers and Jammeh is increasingly isolated at home as ministers abandoned his camp.
Hundreds of people celebrated Barrow’s swearing in and the ECOWAS advance into Gambia.
Jammeh on Thursday dissolved the government – half of whose members have resigned – and pledged to name a new one.
Support for him remained strong in some quarters, reflecting his years of power in the country of 1.8 million people.
“Why should the other countries interfere. Why should they force him to leave?” said Momodou Badji, 78, in Banjul’s Kanifing neighbourhood.
On Thursday night, army chief General Ousman Badjie, who had stood by Jammeh, was seen smiling on the streets, wading through a mass of jubilant Banjul residents shouting and dancing.