President
Muhammadu Buhari and other West African leaders, may have tactically
taken Gambia’s president-elect, Adama Barrow into safety after a botched
attempt to persuade President Yahya Jammeh to voluntarily cede power
after he lost the 1 December election.
Jammeh’s tenure ends 19 January. And
both ECOWAS and the AU have said he would cease to be the leader of West
Africa’s smallest country by 20 January.
President Buhari flew out of Banjul
with Barrow on Friday, January 13, 2017 en route to Mali, for what was
called crisis talks in hopes of ending the nation’s political impasse.
Thousands of Gambians themselves are leaving the country over fears of a
possible military intervention to resolve the impasse.
The Nigerian President had led a
three-nation delegation to Banjul earlier in the day, which his foreign
minister, Geoffrey Onyeama admitted had not succeeded in getting
longtime Gambian President Yahya Jammeh to step down.
Jammeh has made clear he will not stand
aside until the country’s Supreme Court decides on his legal challenge
seeking to annul the results of last month’s polls, which he initially
conceded losing.
The Economic Community Of West African
States (ECOWAS), a 15-nation bloc, has repeatedly called on Jammeh to
respect the result of the vote that delivered Barrow to victory, and
step down after 22 years in power.
“The ECOWAS team has decided to depart
Banjul tonight in the company of president-elect Barrow headed for
Bamako, Mali,” Nigeria’s foreign minister Onyeama told journalists.
Ghana’s former president John Mahama,
Liberian leader Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, and Buhari have spent the last
month attempting to cajole Jammeh into ceding the presidency.
Onyeama expressed West Africa’s
“determination to find a peaceful solution that accords with the
constitution of The Gambia and also reflects the will of the Gambian
people,” and said this was best served by Barrow meeting representatives
from all ECOWAS member nations.
West African heads of state are gathered in Bamako for the Africa-France summit which resumes Saturday.
The African Union said there would be
“serious consequences” for Jammeh, without elaborating, if violence or
disorder were to break out as a result of the deadlock.
And Mohamed Ibn Chambas, head of the UN
Office for West Africa and the Sahel, said Friday that ECOWAS would ask
the security council to approve the deployment of troops to The Gambia
if Jammeh refuses to cede power.
There are just five days left of
Jammeh’s five-year term, but he warned the international community on
Tuesday that “undue external interference” was unnecessary.
The Supreme Court is unlikely to sit and
hear his legal challenge before May, ratcheting up tensions with
Barrow, whose inauguration is due Thursday.
Gambian Fleeing
Meanwhile the prolonged political
uncertainty and fear of unrest has pushed thousands of Gambians across
the border into neighbouring Senegal and further afield to
Guinea-Bissau.
Tibna Sambe Na Wana, the national
coordinator for Guinea-Bissau’s refugee commission, said more than 1,000
Gambians had crossed into the country, where they do not require a
visa, in recent days.
“It is clear that the total number is far higher than a thousand and rising daily,” Na Wana said.
Women, children and the elderly made up
the greatest numbers, the official said, with more than 500 passing one
border post near the town of Jegue in three days.
“They say they are scared of a military escalation,” Na Wana added.
In Senegal, the UN’s refugee agency said
“several thousand people” had crossed into the southern Casamance
region from The Gambia, especially children.
Senegal and The Gambia have deep ethnic and linguistic ties, and most families have relatives living across the border.
“Most arrivals in Senegal are Gambians
and Senegalese who have been working or living in The Gambia,” said Liz
Ahua, UNHCR’s representative for West Africa in Dakar, but added
Africans from several other nations were also crossing.
A nation of fewer than two million
people, The Gambia already accounts for the highest number of migrants
per capita of any nationality crossing the Mediterranean on smugglers’
boats to Italy.
The effects of the crisis were further
scrutinised across the continent in Addis Ababa, where the African Union
(AU) declared it would no longer recognise President Jammeh as head of
state on January 19, regardless of the Supreme Court case.
Citing “the inviolable nature of the
outcome of the presidential elections held on 1 December 2016 in The
Gambia,” the AU called on Jammeh to respect the constitution and cede
power to Barrow on that date.
Jammeh has said he wants to wait for the
Supreme Court to sit and hear his case, but the Gambian Bar Association
said Friday his term could not legally be extended except through a
referendum altering the constitution.
The president has few allies and has
faced almost universal condemnation for clinging to his post, though
Nigerian House of Representatives said Thursday the country should
consider offering him asylum. (NAN/AFP)
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