Robbie Gramer, Foreign Policy Magazine
AGHAEZE/AFP/Getty Images
While the world braces for President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on Friday, another inauguration in West Africa has regional leaders worried: Gambia’s. West African countries are reportedly preparing for a military intervention in Gambia if President Yahya Jammeh refuses to step down on Thursday, the day that his successor Adama Barrow was scheduled to take office.
Jammeh, who initially conceded the election to Barrow in a surprise defeat in December, has since reneged his offer to step down, and may be preparing for a fight to stay in office. On Tuesday, Jammeh, who has ruled the tiny and impoverished Gambia for over two decades, declared a state of national emergency in light of what he called “the unprecedented and extraordinary amount of foreign interference” in the Dec. 1 election he lost.
The state of emergency puts the country on lockdown, banning “acts of disobedience” and “acts intended to disturb the public order.” He’s also shored up power in the country’s supreme court and national assembly, which are considered mere extensions of the one-man regime. “Jammeh is digging in for a long fight here,” Gambia expert Jeffrey Smith told Foreign Policy.
There may be will in neighboring countries to send in troops to remove him by force. Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) members, including Nigeria and Gambia’s neighbor Senegal, are reportedly preparing troops. On Tuesday, Nigeria deployed a warship off the coast of Gambia. A source in the Nigerian military told Reuters his country and other West African countries were readying for military action.
