. Barrow sworn in amid reports of Senegalese troops crossing border
Adama Barrow was sworn in as Gambia’s new president in neighbouring Senegal on Thursday as a political crisis threatened to push his west African nation into conflict.
Mr Barrow, the surprise winner of December elections, was forced to hold his inauguration at the Gambian embassy in Dakar, the Senegalese capital, because Gambia’s veteran leader, Yahya Jammeh, refused to step down.
His actions have triggered a regional crisis with the Economic Community of West African States backing Mr Barrow and threatening military intervention if Mr Jammeh insists on clinging to power.
Reuters quoted a Senegalese army spokesman last night as saying his country’s troops had crossed the Gambian border.
The UN Security Council backed Ecowas efforts to end the impasse but stressed that a political resolution remained the preferred option After he was sworn in, Mr Barrow ordered Gambian armed forces to remain in their barracks and warned that anyone found outside with weapons would be considered a rebel.
He also called on Ecowas, a 15-member regional bloc, the African Union and the international community to help him enforce “the people’s will”. “This is a day no Gambian will ever forget,” Mr Barrow said. “There are no losers in this election.”
Halifa Sallah, a spokesman for Mr Barrow’s political coalition, said: “Either President Jammeh accepts the situation or we are looking at a state of war.” Thousands of Gambians have already fled their small country, fearful of a conflict erupting.
After Mr Barrow’s inauguration dozens of people ventured out on to Banjul’s streets — which had been deserted — to celebrate, with some chanting: “welcome to the new Gambia.”
Mr Jammeh’s term was supposed to end at midnight on Wednesday, but he has so far rebuffed diplomatic efforts to persuade him to relinquish power and offers of asylum. The unpredictable leader has ruled Gambia since seizing power in a 1994 coup.
Mr Sallah said Mr Barrow’s decision to hold his inauguration in Dakar was reached after consultations with Ecowas, which has led diplomatic efforts to put pressure on Mr Jammeh to leave office. Mr Sallah said that, once sworn in, Mr Barrow, a businessman and political novice, would be commander-in-chief of the armed forces.
That would give him the right to invite Ecowas troops in to secure his presidency.
“He has to have a military force that backs his presidency or it’s just empty words,” Mr Sallah said. He urged Mr Jammeh to do the right thing in order to avoid “dead bodies . . . and blood flowing like a river”. Mr Jammeh has sought to extend his term by declaring a 90-day state of emergency. That was necessary, he said, because of egregious outside interference in the electoral process, a reference to the determination by fellow west African leaders to enforce the result of December’s poll.
On Wednesday night, hours before Mr Jammeh’s term was supposed to end, Ousman Badjie, his chief of defence staff, indicated that much of Gambia’s small armed forces would not fight for the president. “I am not going to involve my soldiers in a stupid fight. I love my men,” he said. Mr Badjie, who has flip-flopped in his support for Mr Jammeh, said the tussle for the presidency was a political struggle in which soldiers did not need to be involved. It is unclear how many troops Mr Jammeh could count on if it comes to a fight. Banjul’s streets had been almost entirely deserted earlier on Thursday, with almost every shop shut and most people staying indoors. A few walls in one of the main shopping streets were scrawled with graffiti saying “Jammeh Must Go” and “#GambiaHasDecided”.
Police checkpoints were mostly unmanned, and no one was guarding the football stadium in the capital where Mr Barrow’s inauguration was originally to have taken place. In the surrounding streets, a solitary, heavily armed soldier, lolled against a shopfront. Only a handful of military was guarding the bridge that leads to state house, where Mr Jammeh is believed to be hiding out.
In recent days, the remaining support for Mr Jammeh has crumbled, with virtually his entire cabinet, including his vice-president, Isatou Njie Saidy, resigning or fleeing the country. It was unclear whether Mr Jammeh was preparing to make a last-ditch military stand or whether he could still be persuaded to accept defeat. Mr Sallah said there was a situation of “contested legitimacy” between the two men. Gambians must now decide whose side they were on, he said. The important thing, he added, was for Gambians to get Mr Jammeh “to understand that the end has come”.