Gambia’s defeated dictator finally agrees to leave office and the country

BANJUL // Time ran out last night for Gambia’s embattled dictator Yahya Jammeh on Friday as he finally agreed to both leave office and the country. Two deadlines set for him to quit came and went during the day but after hours of tense negotiation, it seemed the new president, Adama Barrow – and possibly Mr Jammeh’s own sense of self-preservation – had prevailed.

According diplomatic sources, Mr Jammeh will sign a deal to step down within three days, and then go first to Mauritania and then possibly on to Morocco, which has not ratified the statutes of the International Criminal Court.

West African troops will remain on the Senegalese border to ensure he keeps his word.

The troops had already crossed into Gambia on Friday but were ordered to stay put while president Alpha Conde of Guinea and Mohamed Ouid Abdel Aziz of Mauritania gave the reluctant ex-president one last chance to relinquish office peacefully. Forces from other West African nations were also on standby to invade if Mr Jammeh remained obstinate.

But in the end the handover of power after 22 years of dictatorship took place withough a shot being fired.

Mr Barrow – who had to be sworn in as president from his country’s’ embassy in neighbouring Senegal – insisted Mr Jammeh could not continue living in Gambia, even in retirement.

In the early evening, red carpets and a podium were laid out at the airport in Gambia’s capital, Banjul, for what appeared to be preparation for a speech and a departure by a dignitary. They proved to be for the Mauritanian aircraft which had brought the other regional leaders to Banjul.

They had warned Mr Jammeh over several meetings in recent days that if he did not agree to quit by Friday afternoon, they would authorise troops massed at the border with Senegal to invade.

The arrival of the presidents of Guinea and Mauritania were the last-ditch attempt to persuade the Gambian dictator that his time was up.

A deadline set for midday was put back by several hours while the talks continued into the afternoon.

But mediators had left similar diplomatic missions empty-handed in recent weeks, and there was no certainty that Friday’s last-ditch effort would be any different.

“This really is his last chance,” one diplomat said. “If he doesn’t go now he (Mr Jammeh) will face the consequences.”

The consequences of Mr Jammeh’s obstinacy were already being felt. About 47,000 people fled over the border into Senegal and hundreds of European tourists were evacuated, badly denting the country’s reputation as a popular and safe holiday destination in Africa.

Mr Barrow, who achieved a surprise defeat of Mr Jammeh in elections in December, moved to Senegal last week amid fears that his rival might instruct his security forces to murder or imprison him.

At his swearing-in, Mr Barrow ordered both the Gambian army and Mr Jammeh’s feared intelligence service to submit to his authority or risk being classed as “rebels”.

But a core of Jammeh loyalists, believed to number about 300, had remains camped out with the president around his offices at Banjul’s state house on Friday.

Diplomats speculated that, as the threat of invasion loomed, members of Mr Jammeh’s inner circle might have turned him in or even killed him. While many of his acolytes are believed to have blood on their hands themselves, handing Mr Jammeh over peacefully could have won them favours with Mr Barrow’s new government.

Last night, a diplomat said Mr Jammeh had no wish to go down the “Saddam Hussein” route, in which the deposed Iraqi dictator was tried, convicted of crimes against humanity and hanged in 2006, three years after a US-led invasion toppled him.

But in recent days, sticking points have emerged between Mr Jammeh and regional mediators over what kind of deal he might accept in order to step down.

Mr Jammeh insisted that he wants to retire to his farm in his home village of Kanilai, south of Banjul, where has a palace.

That, however, was ruled out on the basis that he would continue to pose a threat to Gambia’s internal stability. Diplomats insisted that he go abroad, offering him asylum variously in Nigeria, Morocco, Sudan, Mauritania and Saudi Arabia.

Of those, only Saudi Arabia would be unlikely to ever hand him over for prosecution for human rights abuses. The Saudi option was rejected by Mr Jammeh because it was just for him and nine members of his immediately family, rather than members of his inner circle as well.

foreign.desk@thenational.ae