West African troops entered The Gambia Sunday to
secure President Adama Barrow’s arrival from
neighbouring Senegal, as controversy erupted over the
assurances offered to Yahya Jammeh to guarantee his
exit.
Jammeh flew out of The Gambia on Saturday, ending 22
years at the helm of the tiny west African nation, and
landed in Equatorial Guinea a few hours later where he
is expected to settle with his family.
The Senegalese general leading a joint force of troops
from five African nations said soldiers had nonetheless
entered The Gambia to “control strategic points to
ensure the safety of the population and facilitate…
Barrow’s assumption of his role.”
A journalist in the Gambian border town of Farafenni
saw a convoy crossing the frontier on Sunday morning,
which would leave them several hours to reach Banjul.
Senegalese forces had briefly crossed into the former
British colony on Thursday but pulled out shortly
afterwards, with Sunday’s troop movement the first by
soldiers from the joint force.
Marcel Alain de Souza, a top official with the Economic
Community Of West African States (ECOWAS), which
organised the deployment, said pro-Jammeh elements
and mercenaries remained on the ground and had open
fired as troops crossed the border.
Adama Barrow
“They were neutralised,” he said in a statement, without
elaborating.
De Souza said the country “could not be left open” for
long, however, and that Barrow must be in place “as
soon as possible”.
“A country must have a government, but the security
conditions required the troops we have sent to secure
Banjul and other towns,” he said.
– Comfortable terms –
Following Barrow’s win in the December 1 election,
Jammeh refused to step down, triggering weeks of
uncertainty that almost ended in a full military
intervention.
The longtime leader, wearing his habitual white flowing
robes, waved to supporters before boarding a small,
unmarked plane at Banjul airport alongside Guinea’s
President Alpha Conde after two days of talks over a
departure deal.
He left behind a small minority of diehard supporters,
some of whom wept as his plane departed.
The choice of Equatorial Guinea for his exile had helped
ease concerns that Jammeh might interfere in his
nation’s politics if he stayed in Guinea, whose border is
not far from The Gambia’s eastern region.
The strongman personally controlled certain sections of
the security forces, and his long tenure was marked by
systematic rights abuses, including extrajudicial killings,
torture, and arbitrary detention.
But critics have raised concerns over the wording of a
statement issued by the UN, ECOWAS and the African
Union that seemed to offer Jammeh comfortable
guarantees for his future.
“No legislative measures” would be taken that would
infringe the “dignity, security, safety and rights” of
Jammeh or his family, it said, noting that he could return
when he pleased and that property “lawfully” belonging
to him would not be seized.
Equatorial Guinea is not a signatory to the Rome Statute
that established the International Criminal Court,
meaning Jammeh would not be extradited in the event
he was charged with crimes against humanity or other
serious offences.
One Banjul-based diplomat described the provision for
Jammeh to return to The Gambia without hindrance as
ill-advised.
Experts told AFP the document was not legally binding
and would be left to the interpretation of the new
government.
– ‘Democracy is back’ –
Jammeh took power in a 1994 coup from the country’s
only other president since independence from Britain,
Dawda Jawara, making this The Gambia’s first
democratic transition of power.
“We are going to wait for Barrow at the airport all the
way to State House. Before we were scared to come
out,” said security guard Babacar Jallow, describing
Jammeh as “a killer.”
With Jammeh gone, all eyes will be on the Barrow
administration as they make their first steps as a
government of reform and development.
“The will of the people has come to be — at last,” said
Isatou Touray, a key official in the government-in-
waiting.
“Democracy is back, you can’t stop the people.”
The first priority will be to ensure the safe return of tens
of thousands of people who have fled in recent weeks
fearing a bloody end to the crisis, Touray said on
Saturday.
The crisis had also sparked the exodus of thousands of
foreign visitors, dealing a potentially devastating blow
to a country which earns up to 20 percent of its income
from tourism.
