Gambia: Yahya Jammeh declares state of emergency a day before tenure expiration
Gambia’s President Yahya Jammeh has declared a 90-day national state of emergency just one day before he was supposed to vacate the seat of power.
Jammeh’s tenure as leader of the West African country will officially run its course January 18, but the defiant dictator has maintained he is going nowhere.
Jammeh declared a total lock-down on the country’s activities during a national TV address on Tuesday, citing “the unprecedented and extraordinary amount of foreign interference” in the presidential showdown as his reason.
He also cited external interference in “the internal affairs of The Gambia and the unwarranted hostile atmosphere threatening the sovereignty, peace, security and stability of the country”.
Al-Jazeera‘s Nicolas Haque said what the state of emergency signifies “is that all land, sea and air borders will be shut down – Gambia, as of right now, is effectively on lockdown.”
The winner of the December 2 presidential election in the country, Adama Barrow had been away in Senegal since the past weeks after an attempt by ECOWAS to pacify Jammeh to allow for peaceful transition proved unsuccessful.
Mr. Barrow would have been sworn-in Thursday, January 19.
The political impasse in Gambia has led to no fewer than six ministers resigning from Mr. Jammeh’s cabinet.
Ministers of tourism and culture, finance, foreign affairs, trade, information, and environment have all deserted Jammeh’s government.
Ahead of the stand-off, ECOWAS has said it could deploy soldiers to force Mr. Jammeh out of office.
