Gambia: President-elect Barrow to remain in Senegal until swearing-in

Senegal will host Gambian president-elect Adama Barrow until his swearing-in ceremony, the state-owned Senegalese news agency APS reported Sunday.

The swearing-in is due to take place on Thursday, but outgoing President Yahya Jammeh has challenged the result of the December 1 election at the Supreme Court.

Mr. Barrow arrived in Dakar shortly after midnight on Sunday, APS quoted an unnamed official source as saying.

The agency said Senegalese President Macky Sall had accepted to host Mr. Barrow at the request of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) at a Franco-African summit in the Malian capital Bamako on Saturday.

ECOWAS had set Thursday as a deadline to try to resolve the Gambian political crisis, Radio France Internationale earlier quoted Togolese President Faure Gnassingbe as saying.

Mr. Jammeh’s refusal to concede defeat has sparked fears of violence in the West African country.

Mr. Barrow attended the Franco-African summit, while Mr. Jammeh was absent, following talks between ECOWAS mediators and both leaders in Gambia on Friday.

A statement from Mr. Barrow’s office said Mr. Jammeh’s meeting with Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari and other ECOWAS representatives was “unproductive.”

The talks with ECOWAS came several hours after Gambia’s ruling party filed a motion with the Supreme Court to prevent Barrow from being sworn into office on Jan. 19.

ECOWAS earlier pledged to send troops to ensure a peaceful transition of power if Jammeh persists in his refusal to step down after ruling Gambia with an iron fist for more than two decades.

(dpa/NAN)