The Nation Newspaper

Tag: President Yahya Jammeh

  • Gambia: Military intervention inevitable as Jammeh stays put

    Gambia: Military intervention inevitable as Jammeh stays put

    As all attempts to convince President Yahya Jammeh of the Gambia to step aside on the expiration of his tenure fails, the prospect of military intervention by regional forces seem inevitable.

    Recall that Jammeh lost the presidential election to the candidate of the United Democratic Party (UDP) Adama Barrow on December 1st, 2016 and initially conceded defeat before refusing to step down.

    Jammeh and Barrow

    Jammeh had ruled the country for more than two decades, but said if God willed it, his presidency could go on for “a billion years“.

    He has refused to leave office despite international pressure and a threat by leaders of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), to enforce his election defeat.

    Earlier this week, he disclosed the telephone conversation he had with the Chairperson of the ECOWAS, and Liberian President, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, public. See video below:

    On Wednesday, a military commander with West Africa’s regional bloc, Seydou Maiga Mboro said its forces will “take action” at midnight unless a solution is found to Gambia’s political crisis before then. According to him, all the troops are already in place awaiting the deadline for President Yahya Jammeh to step down.

    Senegalese and Nigerian troops have arrived the borders of the Gambia awaiting instructions to oust Jammeh out of office if he refuses to step down after clinging to power for over 22 years despite losing to Adama Barrow.

    However, Barrow on his social media account invited everyone to his inauguration which according to him will hold at the Gambian embassy in Dakar, Senegal.

     

    Before running for the Presidency of his country, Barrow lived in the United Kingdom (UK) for several years, where he reportedly worked as a security guard at the Argos catalogue store in north London, while studying for his real estate qualifications.

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  • Gambian president refuses to leave after deadline

    Gambian president refuses to leave after deadline

    A last minute attempt to convince Yahya Jammeh to give up his role as Gambian president before Wednesday’s midnight deadline failed, according to sources in the country’s capital.

    Mauretanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz allegedly made a last-ditch effort late Wednesday night to persuade Jammeh to stand down after more than two decades in power, but was not able to convince him.

    Troops from Senegal, Nigeria and Ghana remained in position in neighbouring Senegal as the deadline passed.

    Meanwhile 26,000 Gambians crossed the border into Senegal between the start of the year and Monday, with many continuing to flee the impending conflict in recent days, according to UNHCR spokeswoman Helene Caux in Dakar.

    Eyewitnesses reported heavily armed soldiers arriving at the Senegalese border town of Karang late Wednesday, while the Nigerian Air Force deployed fighter jets and troops to Senegal ahead of a likely military intervention in Gambia, where the post-election political crisis was escalating.

    Regional bloc ECOWAS pledged to send troops to ensure a peaceful transition of power after it failed in repeated attempts to convince Jammeh to cede power.

    After ruling Gambia for 22 years, Jammeh has refused to accept the result of a December 1 election, which saw him lose power to real estate mogul Adama Barrow.

    Halifa Sallah, a spokesman for the president-elect, said if Jammeh refused to step down by midnight, Thursday’s inauguration would take place at the Gambian embassy in Dakar due to the military intervention in Gambia.

    The Nigerian Air Force said in a statement its deployment was in keeping with the West African bloc’s pledge to enforce the election mandate.

    Nigeria moved 200 troops, fighter jets, transport aircraft, helicopters and other air assets to the Senegalese capital Dakar, and planned to move them from there into Gambia.

    “The deployment is also to forestall hostilities or breakdown of law and order that may result from the current political impasse in Gambia,” the statement read.

    Barrow fled Gambia on Saturday to Dakar amid fears of violence, but has insisted he would be inaugurated as scheduled on Thursday.

    The president, who refuses to leave office, on Tuesday placed his army on highest alert and chief of defence staff, Ousman Badjie, repeatedly pledged his loyalty to the autocrat.

    Experts, however, don’t believe Jammeh will be able to hold up a military battle for long.

    The country of 1.9 million people has about 1,000 soldiers, little capacity to fight a well-trained army, for example that of Senegal, which has almost 20,000 troops.

  • Gambia: Regional bloc prepares for intervention at midnight

    Gambia: Regional bloc prepares for intervention at midnight

    A military commander with West Africa’s regional bloc says its forces will “take action” at midnight unless a solution is found to Gambia’s political crisis before then.

    The Associated Press quoted Seydou Maiga Mboro speaking on Senegalese radio station RFM, saying that “all the troops are already in place” awaiting the deadline for President Yahya Jammeh to step down.

    Witnesses in Senegal have reported seeing troops making their way toward Gambia’s borders.

     Jammeh has refused to cede power after 22 years at the helm despite losing the Dec. 1 election to Adama Barrow.

    The president-elect has vowed to go ahead with his inauguration anyway on Thursday, and ECOWAS, the regional bloc, has vowed to use military force if necessary to remove him.

    Jammeh seized power of Gambia in a 1994 coup

  • Gambia: President’s party seeks to block Barrow’s inauguration

    Gambia: President’s party seeks to block Barrow’s inauguration

    The Political Party of Gambia’s President Yahya Jammeh, filed a request on Friday with the Supreme Court for an injunction aimed at blocking the swearing in of his rival.

    Jammeh lost an election last month and has refused to accept his defeat.

    The question of whether Gambia can install opposition figure Adama Barrow as president is seen as a test case for African democracy in a region accustomed to coups and political unrest.

    Barrow, who won the poll and has received the support of the international community, has said he will go ahead with his inauguration on Jan. 19 despite Jammeh’s rejection of the result.

    Supreme Court Chief Justice Emmanuel Fagbenle, confirmed receipt of the petition, which was filed by Jammeh’s Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction (APRC).

    “It is filed today with the court registrar,’’ said Fagbenle, who did not say when a decision on the petition might be made.

    Aziz Bensouda, the secretary general of the Gambia Bar Association, said an injunction would be unconstitutional.

    “The inauguration of the president-elect should be held when Jammeh’s term officially ends the court does not have any mandate to put an inauguration on hold,’’ he said.

    The election defeat of Jammeh, a former coup leader, after 22 years of increasingly authoritarian rule was celebrated across the tiny West African nation, and the incumbent initially accepted the result.

    However, in a u-turn a week later that drew international condemnation, he denounced what he claimed was widespread fraud.

    The APRC filed a challenge to the poll results, but the Supreme Court was unable to hear the petition after several judges failed to show up.

    Fagbenle adjourned the hearing until January 16.

    The Supreme Court, which rights campaigners say is heavily influenced by Jammeh, has not sat in over a year.

    Two chief justices have been dismissed since 2013 and one of them was jailed.

    The court hired four foreign judges from Nigeria and Sierra Leone to hear Jammeh’s appeal legal sources said that the judges had not yet arrived in Gambia.

    Regional bloc ECOWAS has sought to negotiate Jammeh’s peaceful departure and Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari is leading a mediation mission to Gambia.

    Nigeria’s lower house of parliament approved a motion to authorise  Buhari to offer Jammeh asylum if he steps down.

    However, ECOWAS has also hinted at possible military action if he stays beyond the end of his term in office next week, raising the prospect of violence.

    The U.S. Department of State, which has already advised against travel to Gambia, warned American citizens to avoid the capital Banjul’s city centre.

    Embassy staff was required to be off the streets by 6 p.m. (1800 GMT) until further notice.