{"id":286539,"date":"2017-01-20T06:17:48","date_gmt":"2017-01-20T06:17:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=286539"},"modified":"2017-01-20T06:17:48","modified_gmt":"2017-01-20T06:17:48","slug":"gambia-crisis-jammeh-given-last-chance-to-resign-as-troops-close-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=286539","title":{"rendered":"Gambia crisis: Jammeh given last chance to resign as troops close in"},"content":{"rendered":"

West African leaders have given Yahya Jammeh a final opportunity to relinquish power after Senegalese troops entered The Gambia.<\/p>\n

Mr Jammeh has been given until noon on Friday to leave office or be forced out by UN-backed regional forces.<\/p>\n

Troops have been told to halt their advance until the deadline passes.<\/p>\n

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is acting in support of Adama Barrow, who was sworn in as the new Gambian president on Thursday.<\/p>\n

His legitimacy as president, after winning last month’s election, has been recognised internationally.<\/p>\n

Last-ditch mediation talks, led by Guinea’s President Alpha Conde, are due on Friday morning.<\/p>\n

Chairman of the Ecowas commission, Marcel Alain de Souza, said that if the meeting with Mr Conde proved unsuccessful, militarily action would follow.<\/p>\n

“If by midday, he [Mr Jammeh] doesn’t agree to leave The Gambia under the banner of President Conde, we really will intervene militarily,” he said.<\/p>\n

Ecowas said that its forces had encountered no resistance after entering The Gambia on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Troops from Senegal and other West African countries crossed into The Gambia after an initial deadline for Mr Jammeh to stand down passed with his resignation.<\/p>\n

Mr Barrow, who remains in Senegal, has said that he will not return to Gambia’s capital, Banjul, until the military operation had ended.<\/p>\n

The threat by the West African regional bloc Ecowas to remove Mr Jammeh by force is supported by the 15-member UN Security Council, although the council has stressed that a political solution should be the priority.<\/p>\n

A Senegalese army spokesman, Col Abdou Ndiaye, told the BBC that troops who were now in The Gambia were prepared to fight if necessary.<\/p>\n

“It is already war, if we find any resistance, we will fight it,” he said, adding: “If there are people who are fighting for the former president, we will fight them.”<\/p>\n

But Col Ndiaye said the main goal of Ecowas was to restore democracy and to allow the newly-elected president to take power.<\/p>\n

In his inaugural speech at the Gambian embassy in Senegal’s capital, Dakar, President Barrow ordered all members of The Gambia’s armed forces to remain in their barracks.<\/p>\n

Any found found illegally bearing arms would be considered “rebels”, he said.<\/p>\n

Why is Mr Jammeh refusing to go?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n
\"Mr
Mr Jammeh has called for new elections to be held in Gambia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n

After first accepting defeat he reversed his position and said he would not step down. He declared a 90-day state of emergency, blaming irregularities in the electoral process.<\/p>\n

The electoral commission accepted that some of its early results had contained errors but said they would not have affected Mr Barrow’s win.<\/p>\n

Mr Jammeh has said he will stay in office until new elections are held.<\/p>\n

Remaining in power would also give him protection against prosecution for alleged abuses committed during his rule.<\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

Source: BBC<\/p>\n

<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

West African leaders have given Yahya Jammeh a final opportunity to relinquish power after Senegalese troops entered The Gambia. Mr Jammeh has been given until noon on Friday to leave office or be forced out by UN-backed regional forces. Troops have been told to halt their advance until the deadline passes. The Economic Community of […]<\/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":[3,3239],"class_list":["post-286539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-international","tag-ghana-news","tag-the-gambia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286539","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=286539"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286539\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=286539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=286539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=286539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}