AFRICA/GAMBIA - President Barrow takes office in the Gambian embassy in Dakar; first step for the Pan-African military intervention?

Thursday, 19 January 2017 armed groups   politics  

Banjul (Agenzia Fides) - The elected President of Gambia, Adama Barrow, will be sworn in today, January 19, at the Gambian Embassy in Dakar, Senegal, where he took refuge after outgoing President, Yahya Jammeh, decided not to give in power (see Fides 18/01/2017).
Barrow’s settlement abroad opens the door to military intervention in Gambia of the Countries of the Economic Community of West African States (CEDEAO/ECOWAS). Barrow, recognized as legitimate Gambian Head of State by the international community, could in fact invoke the intervention of neighboring States to depose Jammeh and take power in the Country.
Meanwhile, according to sources of the local press, Jammeh seems to have recruited several mercenaries from Liberia, Sierra Leone, Mali and Casamance, the southern province of Senegal, which borders with Gambia. In these Countries there are combatants and former militia fighters who fought in civilian local wars and have often kept their weapons.
Meanwhile the armies of Senegal, Nigeria and Ghana are located along the border between Senegal and Gambia in view of an intervention in the small African Country. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 19/01/2017)


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