As former Gambian president Yahya Jammeh prepares to leave the nation, human rights groups demand that he be held accountable for alleged abuses.
Jammeh yesterday announced that he would cede power after hours of last-ditch talks with regional leaders and the threat that a regional military force would remove him.
No date has been set for the return of Gambian President Adama Barrow, who beat Jammeh in last month’s election and who was sworn into office on Thursday in neighboring Senegal, where he was for his safety.
Photo: AFP
“The rule of fear” in the Gambia ended with Jammeh’s rule, Barrow said late on Friday.
Jammeh was possibly to leave the Gambia yesterday, but might stay on for three days, according to an official close to talks mediated by Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz and Guinean President Alpha Conde.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not permitted to speak about the situation to the press.
Jammeh’s agreement to step down brought an end to the political crisis in the tiny west African nation of 1.9 million that attracts British and European tourists to its tropical weather and Atlantic beaches, promoted as “the Smiling Coast.”
Gambian human rights groups are insisting that Jammeh be held accountable for alleged abuses during his 22-year rule and that he not be able to keep allegedly illicit funds.
“Jammeh came as a pauper bearing guns; he should leave as a disrobed despot,” said Jeggan Bahoum of the Movement for the Restoration of Democracy in Gambia. “The properties he seeks to protect belong to Gambians and Gambia and he must not be allowed to take them with him. He must leave our country without conditionalities.”
The Gambia was a diplomatic ally of Taiwan until Jammeh cut ties with Taipei on Nov. 14, 2013.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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