BANJUL – Gambia’s Yahya Jammeh declared a state of emergency just days before he was due to step down, with British and Dutch travel agencies scrambling to evacuate thousands of tourists yesterday.
Jammeh, who has ruled The Gambia with an iron fist for 22 years, initially acknowledged opponent Adama Barrow as the victor in December elections, but later rejected the ballot count as flawed, and lodged a complaint with the country’s Supreme Court.
He declared a state of emergency on Tuesday due to the “unprecedented and extraordinary amount of foreign interference in the 1 December presidential elections and also in the internal affairs of The Gambia,” Jammeh announced on state TV.
Citizens were henceforth “banned from any acts of disobedience to the laws of The Gambia, incitement to violence and acts intended to disturb public order and peace,” Jammeh said, asking security forces to maintain law and order.
Under the Gambian constitution, a state of emergency lasts up to 90 days if the national assembly confirms it – which the legislature did late Tuesday, a parliamentary source told AFP.
In Washington, the US state department urged Jammeh to “peacefully hand over power” to Barrow – who is in Senegal, where he plans to remain until his planned inauguration today.
“Doing so would allow him to leave office with his head held high, and to protect the Gambian people from potential chaos,” spokesman John Kirby said. “Failure to do so will put his legacy, and more importantly The Gambia, in peril.”
– Nampa-AFP
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