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Eugene

(61,592 posts)
Wed Jan 18, 2017, 09:55 PM Jan 2017

Gambia: tourists scramble for flights out as troops mass at border

Source: The Guardian

Gambia: tourists scramble for flights out as troops mass at border

UK Foreign Office warns against all but essential travel
to the Gambia after Senegal says it will act if president
refuses to accept election defeat


Ruth Maclean West Africa correspondent
Wednesday 18 January 2017 23.31 GMT

Tourists and Gambians are scrambling to leave the west African country after the Senegalese army said its forces will cross the border if long-time president Yahya Jammeh does not stand down.

As tourists were evacuated amid scenes of chaos at Banjul airport, Col Abdou Ndiaye, a spokesman for the Senegalese army, said troops were at the Gambian border and would enter the country at midnight if the deadline for a transfer of power passed. “We are ready,” he told Reuters. “If no political solution is found, we will step in.”

Soldiers from Nigeria, Mali, Togo, Ghana and Senegal make up the regional force, but it is being headed by a Senegalese general and has the backing of the 15-nation Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas), which has repeatedly called on Jammeh to stand down.

The Gambia has been in a state of political uncertainty since Jammeh, who lost the December election to coalition leader Adama Barrow, said he would not step down. He has so far refused to cede power, using the courts and parliament to try to extend his 22-year rule.

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jan/18/british-tourists-crowd-banjul-airport-the-gambia-evacuation-flights
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