Tens of thousands flee as Ecowas-backed troops prepare to enter amid failure of diplomatic efforts to persuade Jammeh to go

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Yahya Jammeh, the Gambia’s longtime president, was holding out in the capital, Banjul, on Thursday after last-ditch diplomatic efforts to persuade him to stand down appear to have failed.

The country has been in a state of political uncertainty since Jammeh refused to cede power to the winner of last month’s presidential election, using the courts and parliament to try to extend his 22-year rule.

His mandate ended at midnight but he has steadfastly refused to hand over to Adama Barrow, prompting west African states to ramp up pressure on the president. A contingent of Senegalese-led troops is positioned on the border.

The Mauritanian president, Mohamed Abdul Aziz, flew into the country for last-minute negotiations on Wednesday, but left without the Gambian president on board.

The sun rose over an eerily quiet country on Thursday morning. No businesses were open. No Gambians were on their way to work and none of the usual groups of tourists, many of whom were leaving after the declaration of a state of emergency on Tuesday, were hailing taxis in the streets.

Fears of violence have prompted tens of thousands of people, many of them children, to flee the Gambia through its land borders.

Across the country, Gambians had waited to see what would happen on the stroke of midnight, when Jammeh’s reign officially came to an end. Hiding in their homes, many had spent the previous day stocking up on supplies and queuing at banks for cash. But midnight came and went.

Troops positioned over the border in Senegal, sent by five west African states and poised for military intervention if regional diplomatic efforts failed, did not roll in.



The incoming president remained in the Senegalese capital of Dakar, where he was apparently preparing to be sworn-in.



“You are all welcome to my inauguration today 4pm at the Gambian embassy in Dakar,” read a post on a Twitter account for Barrow that his media officers said they were running. Senior members of the new ruling coalition had vowed that the inauguration would take place on Gambian soil.



Adama Barrow (@BarrowOfficial1) You are all welcome to my inauguration today 4pm at The #Gambian embassy in #Dakar.

The swearing-in ceremony is to be held two hours before the UN security council decides on a resolution by Senegal asking it to give its blessing to military intervention.

Soldiers from Nigeria, Mali, Togo, Ghana and Senegal make up the regional force, but it is being led by a Senegalese general and has the backing of the 15 member countries in the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas), which has repeatedly called on Jammeh to stand down.

Jammeh’s army chief said late on Wednesday his troops would not fight their entry into the country. “We are not going to involve ourselves militarily. This is a political dispute,” the chief of defence staff, Ousman Badjie, said after eating dinner in a tourist district close to Banjul, witnesses told Agence France-Presse.

“I am not going to involve my soldiers in a stupid fight. I love my men. If they [the Senegalese] come in, we are here like this,” Badjie said, putting his hands up in a surrender gesture.

The country’s vice president, Isatou Njie-Seedy, who has held her position since 1997, became the latest and the most senior in a long string of Jammeh’s ministers to resign, according to reports from Reuters.



Only security forces and protocol officers remain by Jammeh’s side, according to government sources.



Four young men selling “Gambia Has Decided” T-shirts were arrested, according to rights groups, and held incommunicado.

