NAIROBI, Kenya – Senegalese troops entered Gambia on Thursday in a bid to force the West African country’s longtime leader to step down after an election loss, news services reported, and the successor chosen by voters last month took the oath of office in exile.
“We have entered Gambia,” Senegalese army Col. Abdou Ndiaye wrote in a text message to the Reuters news agency. There were no other immediate details of the reported incursion.
Earlier Thursday, Gambia, a tiny country known for its large number of migrants fleeing to Europe and a coastline that draws scores of British sunbathers, gained a new distinction: as a nation with two presidents.
One is Yahya Jammeh, 51, the mercurial strongman who has ruled Gambia for 23 years and refused to step down after losing last month’s presidential election – even as troops from neighboring Senegal threatened to invade the country to oust him.
The other is Adama Barrow, also 51, who defeated Jammeh and was inaugurated in a small ceremony Thursday afternoon at the Gambian Embassy in Senegal.
“My right as a winner to be sworn in is constitutionally guaranteed,” he said at the event.
Gambians know the situation is not sustainable, but it remains unclear how the mounting political crisis will end. West African nations have tried for weeks to persuade Jammeh to step down, sending a slew of African leaders to reason with him in private meetings.
So far, diplomacy has not worked. Now, the 16 countries comprising the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) are threatening military action against Jammeh – a bold and unusual step that reflects the region’s dissatisfaction with what they see as his frequently unhinged leadership.
“The deployment is also to forestall hostilities or breakdown of law and order that may result from the current political impasse in Gambia,” the Nigerian government, a member of ECOWAS said in a statement.
Jammeh’s term officially expired at midnight Thursday. On Wednesday, troops from neighboring Senegal moved to the border with Gambia. Troops from other West African nations were said to be “on standby.”
Jammeh, a former army officer who first took power in a 1994 coup, has increasingly become an international pariah. He is known for making bizarre claims, such as touting his ability to cure AIDS with local herbs. In Gambia, Jammeh’s many critics say he helped enrich a small circle of politicians while doing little for the rest of the impoverished country, leading to a massive exodus to North Africa and Europe.
He also vowed to slit the throats of gay men and ordered security forces to round up hundreds of people accused of witchcraft. Last year, he said Gambia would leave the International Criminal Court, which his administration mocked as the “International Caucasian Court.”
Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz arrived Wednesday in the capital, Banjul, the latest in a series of African leaders who have urged Jammeh to leave office. Foreign diplomats suggested that Jammeh could be offered asylum in Morocco or Nigeria in exchange for handing power to Barrow.
But on Thursday, after his term formally expired, Jammeh apparently remained in Banjul at the presidential palace. He made no public statements in the hours before Barrow’s inauguration.
In recent days, thousands more Gambians have fled the country. Among them were some of Jammeh’s former cabinet members who severed ties with him after he refused to concede the December election. The country’s ambassador to Washington, Sheikh Omar Faye, said last month that Jammeh “has created a serious post-election crisis and put the Gambia on a dangerous path.”
Hundreds of foreign tourists, who flock to Gambia’s hotel-dotted coastline, were evacuated this week.
Barrow has remained in Senegal while regional leaders tried to persuade Jammeh to leave. The former real estate agent has little political experience – he was once a security guard at a London department store – but many Gambians see him as the symbol of a fresh start for the country. Some of his supporters suggested that they would be willing to fight Jammeh’s forces if necessary.
“Those who resist peaceful change, effective 12 midnight tonight, shall face definite consequences, to their peril,” Mai Ahmad Fatty, one of Barrow’s advisers, said in a Facebook post Wednesday. “Anyone with firearms tonight shall be deemed a rebel, and will certainly become a legitimate target.”
Still, Aziz, Mauritania’s president, said his Wednesday meeting with Jammeh left him hopeful.
“I am now less pessimistic [Jammeh] will work on a peaceful solution that is in the best interest for everyone,” he said on Gambian state television.
(c) 2017, The Washington Post ยท Kevin Sieff
