AKIPRESS.COM - Gambia's new President finally arrived in the West African country to govern on Thursday, after days of waiting in a neighboring nation while his predecessor belatedly and reluctantly stepped down after 22 years in power, CNN reported.

President Adama Barrow, who defeated longtime President Yahya Jammeh in a December election but waited in neighboring Senegal because Jammeh refused to surrender power on time last week, was greeted at the airport by large crowds as he landed in Gambia, according to a local journalist at the scene.

Barrow was supposed take power in Gambia's capital, Banjul, on January 19. Instead, Jammeh stayed in office. The defeated president, after initially conceding the election, announced on December 9 that he rejected the results, in part alleging foreign interference, and called for his country to vote again.

But the United Nations Security Council, the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States backed Barrow as Jammeh's elected successor.