By Tim Cocks
BANJUL (Reuters) - West African leaders were due in
Banjul on Friday morning to offer Gambia's veteran leader Yahya Jammeh a last
chance to step down peacefully before regional forces, which have already entered
the country, oust him.
Troops from
regional bloc ECOWAS, spearheaded by Senegal and Nigeria, crossed into Gambia
on Thursday at the request of newly elected President Adama Barrow, who had to
be sworn in at Gambia's embassy in Dakar as Jammeh clings to office.
The West African
armies have given Jammeh, in power since a 1994 coup, until midday on Friday to
quit before they continue their advance across the tiny slither of a country to
the capital, Banjul.
The city was quiet
overnight after hundreds of Gambians celebrated Barrow's swearing in and the
subsequent ECOWAS advance into their country - a popular destination for
European tourists that Jammeh has ruled with an iron fist.
Gambia's only land
border is with Senegal and the regional coalition, which ECOWAS says involves
7,000 troops, has entered from the southeast, southwest and north.
Marcel de Souza,
head of the ECOWAS commission, said Guinea's President Alpha Conde would travel
to Banjul with the leaders of Mauritania and Liberia to try to convince Jammeh
to travel to Guinea before choosing a country of exile.
"It's out of
the question that he stays in place," de Souza said.
Jammeh initially
conceded to Barrow after a December election before he reversed his decision,
saying the vote was flawed and he would remain in power until a new election
could be held.
Barrow has been recognised as Gambia's new
president by world powers and Jammeh is increasingly isolated at home as
ministers abandoned his camp.
On Thursday night,
army chief General Ousman Badjie, who had publicly stood by Jammeh, was seen
smiling on the streets, wading through a mass of jubilant Banjul residents
shouting and dancing.
Barrow asked for
foreign help to assume office immediately after he was sworn in on Thursday, a
plan that was backed by the U.N. Security Council in New York.
(Additional reporting by Emma Farge and Diadie Ba in
Dakar; Writing by David Lewis; Editing by Richard Lough)
-Africanews
AEP
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