{"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\/2017\/01\/gambia-crisis-jammeh-given-last-chance-to-resign-as-troops-close-in\/","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