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World|politics|January 19, 2017 / 02:35 PM
West African force poised to ensure Gambian transfer of power

AKIPRESS.COM - West African troops are gathered at Senegal’s border with Gambia poised to intervene to ensure President-elect Adama Barrow’s inauguration goes ahead Thursday, as the leader of Mauritania spearheaded last-ditch efforts to negotiate a settlement to the crisis in the tiny country, Bloombergreported.

Nigeria and Ghana committed troops and aircraft to the buildup that’s centered in Senegal, which surrounds Gambia on three sides. Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz flew between the capitals of the two countries in the early morning hours, meeting in Dakar with Barrow and Senegalese President Macky Sall before leaving again.

The United Nations Security Council is scheduled to vote later Thursday on a resolution that would urge the Economic Community of West African States to enforce the outcome of last month’s elections in which Barrow defeated Yahya Jammeh, who’s ruled Gambia since a coup in 1994 and refused to leave office.

“If Ecowas does not intervene, its ability to maintain political order among its member countries would lose credibility,” Adeline van Houtte, Africa analyst for the Economist Intelligence Unit, said by e-mail. “And if Mr. Jammeh manages to cling onto power, it would also damage the credibility of so-called democratic elections in the region.”

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