{"id":281744,"date":"2017-01-04T17:00:32","date_gmt":"2017-01-04T17:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=281744"},"modified":"2017-01-04T17:00:32","modified_gmt":"2017-01-04T17:00:32","slug":"gambian-army-chief-pledges-allegiance-to-defeated-president","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=281744","title":{"rendered":"Gambian army chief pledges allegiance to defeated president"},"content":{"rendered":"

The head of Gambia’s army has given his full backing to the country’s president, Yahya Jammeh, amid a deepening political crisis.<\/p>\n

Mr Jammeh suffered a surprise electoral defeat last month to Adama Barrow.<\/p>\n

He initially accepted the result but changed his mind days later, citing electoral “abnormalities”.<\/p>\n

In a letter to the pro-government newspaper, Gen Ousman Badjie pledged the “unflinching loyalty and support of the Gambia Armed Forces” to Mr Jammeh.<\/p>\n

Gen Badjie’s intervention follows the threat of military action by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) if Mr Jammeh refuses to leave office on 19 January.<\/p>\n

President Jammeh has said any such intervention would constitute an act of war.<\/p>\n

\"_92912380_composite\"<\/p>\n

Mr Barrow’s team had previously claimed the support of Gen Badjie. The army’s support is seen as critical in building a transition after Mr Jammeh’s 22 years in power.<\/p>\n

The tiny West African state has not had a smooth transfer of power since independence from Britain in 1965.<\/p>\n

The dispute over the election results has raised tensions in the region, with both neighbouring countries and international powers urging Mr Jammeh to step down.<\/p>\n

Mr Barrow won 43.3% of the vote on 1 December, beating President Jammeh’s 39.6%. A third-party candidate, Mama Kandeh, won 17.1%.<\/p>\n

Those figures were revised from earlier totals, after the electoral commission discovered a tallying error affecting all candidates. The revised results did not alter the outcome of the election.<\/p>\n

\"_93232411_gambiatopelectoralofficial\"<\/p>\n

However, Mr Jammeh declared that he would no longer respect the result and has launched a court action to annul the result.<\/p>\n

His security forces have seized control of the commission’s headquarters in the capital, Banjul, and the head of the election commission has fled the country over fears for his security.<\/p>\n

Three private radio stations were also taken off air, in an apparent media crackdown. One has since resumed broadcasting music and advertisements only, with no on-air presenters or DJs.<\/p>\n

Despite the threat of military intervention and President Jammeh’s protests, Mr Barrow’s team said they plan to declare him as president on 18 December.<\/p>\n

In an interview with the BBC, Mr Barrow said he would not prosecute the former president after a transition, but focus instead on reconciling the country’s opposing forces.<\/p>\n

“If South Africa can reconcile [after the racial system of apartheid ended in 1994], I see no reason why Gambians cannot reconcile. We are not saying prosecution; we said truth and reconciliation,” he said.<\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The head of Gambia’s army has given his full backing to the country’s president, Yahya Jammeh, amid a deepening political crisis. Mr Jammeh suffered a surprise electoral defeat last month to Adama Barrow. He initially accepted the result but changed his mind days later, citing electoral “abnormalities”. In a letter to the pro-government newspaper, Gen […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[2572,2437],"class_list":["post-281744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-international","tag-gambian","tag-yahya-jammeh"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=281744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281744\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=281744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=281744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=281744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}