By Tim Cocks and Emma Farge
BANJUL/DAKAR (Reuters) - West African nations launched
a military operation in Gambia on Thursday, Senegal's army said, aiming to
install its new President Adama Barrow and remove longtime ruler Yahya Jammeh,
who refuses to step down despite an election loss.
Barrow took the
oath of office on Thursday at Gambia's embassy in Senegal, calling for
international support from West Africa's ECOWAS bloc, the African Union and the
United Nations.
The intervention,
led by a Senegalese general and dubbed Operation Restore Democracy, involves
"significant" land, air and sea resources, according to a Senegalese
army statement.
"This action
aims to re-establish constitutional legality in Gambia and allow the new
elected president to take office," it said, adding that the operation was
being carried out under an ECOWAS mandate.
A local Senegalese
government official saw a military convoy including tanks in Diouloulou, near
Senegal's border with Gambia on Thursday morning. And soon after Barrow's
swearing in, Senegal's army spokesman told Reuters its forces crossed into its
much smaller neighbour.
Nigeria, which
pre-positioned war planes and helicopters in Dakar, is also part of the
operation, but it was not immediately clear if it too had crossed the border.
Ghana has also
pledged troops.
"This is a
day no Gambian will ever forget," Barrow said after taking the oath, which
was administered by the president of Gambia's bar association. "Our
national flag will now fly high among the most democratic nations of the
world."
"I hereby make an explicit appeal to ECOWAS,
the (African Union) and the UN... to support the government and people of the
Gambia in enforcing their will, restoring their sovereignty and constitutional
legitimacy," he said.
The U.N. Security
Council on Thursday backed ECOWAS's efforts to ensure Barrow assumes power, and
the United States said it supported Senegal's intervention.
ECOWAS has been
attempting to persuade Jammeh to quit for weeks, and has failed to do so,
despite his increasing political isolation and last ditch efforts to reason
with him overnight.
Jammeh, in power
since a 1994 coup and whose mandate ended overnight, initially conceded defeat
to Barrow following a Dec. 1 election before back-tracking, saying the vote was
flawed.
"THE DICTATOR IS OUT"
Hundreds of
Gambians celebrated in the streets, cautiously at first, and then gradually in
larger numbers as they realised the security forces looking on were not going
to open fire.
Cars whizzed up
and down the highway lined with iron-roofed shops in the pro-Barrow Serrekunda
district of Banjul, with horns honking and people hanging out of the windows.
"The dictator
is out," shouted pharmacist Lamine Jao, 30, as others cheered and whistled
in agreement. "It's just a question of time. We'll soon flush him out.
Believe me," he said.
During the brief inauguration speech, Barrow
asserted his new role as commander and chief of Gambia's armed services,
ordering soldiers to stay calm and remain in their barracks. Those who did not
would be considered rebels, he said.
ECOWAS and the
African Union have said they will recognise Barrow from Thursday and nations
including the United Kingdom and France were quick to congratulate Barrow.
U.N.
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in a statement pledged "his full
support for his (Barrow's) determination, and ECOWAS's historic decision, with
the unanimous backing of the Security Council, to restore the rule of law in
The Gambia so as to honour and respect the will of the Gambian people."
Barrow gave the
oath in a tiny room in Gambia's embassy in the Senegalese capital, Dakar, and
many of those present broke into the Gambian national anthem once he had
completed it.
Outside the
building on a residential street amid a heavy security presence, dozens of
Gambians listened to the ceremony through loudspeakers.
"It's very
sad to be swearing in a president in someone else's country," said Fatou
Silla, 33, a businesswoman who fled Gambia with her son a week ago.
Fearing unrest,
thousands of Gambians have fled, the United Nations estimates.
A senior aide to
Barrow said that arrangements would be made for him to return to Gambia though
it was unclear when or how.
At a bar in the
Gambian capital Banjul's popular Senegambia strip, people crowded around a
television to watch the swearing in and cheered and danced when it was over.
"We have been suffering for 22 years and now
things will be different," said a cashier who only gave her name as Fama.
As tour companies
moved out hundreds of European tourists, shops, market stalls and banks in
Banjul remained closed. Police circulated in trucks and soldiers manned
checkpoints.
It was unclear
what Jammeh's next move would be.
He faces almost
total diplomatic isolation and a government riddled by defections. In the
biggest loss yet, Vice President Isatou Njie Saidy, who has held the role since
1997, quit on Wednesday, a government source and a family member told Reuters.
Gambia's long,
sandy beaches have made it a prime destination for tourists but Jammeh, who
once vowed to rule for "a billion years", has also earned a
reputation for rights abuses and stifling dissent.
He has ignored
pressure to step aside and offers of exile.
(Additional reporting by Nellie Peyton and Diadie Ba
in Dakar, Felix Onuah in Abuja, Michelle Nichols at the United Nations and John
Irish in Paris; Writing by Joe Bavier and David Lewis; Editing by John
Stonestreet and Dominic Evans)
-Africanews
AEP
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