The United States government through their Ambassador to the United Nations Samntha Power told reporters that Gambia had reached a “very dangerous moment” with Jammeh rejecting the 1st December election results he accepted on the 2nd of December. Ms Power was speaking after a close door briefing of the 15-member Security Council on the situation in the Gambia.
She said some military officers had sided with Jammeh following his shock reversal. But she added that the Council was unified in its condemnation of the former coup leader’s actions.
“Everybody is singing from the same sheet of music and the song is clear, you have lost the election, President Jammeh, and you must give up power peacefully,” Power said.
A high delegation of some West African heads of state, including the Liberian President and current chair of West African regional body ECOWAS, Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari, Ghana Out-going President John Mahama and Sierra Leone’s Ernest Bai Koroma.
Meanwhile, the Senegal foreign ministry said in a statement that “These heads of state will ask him to leave power,” and they called the trip as the last chance mission for Yahya Jammeh to give up. The United States, European Union, African Union, United Nations and ECOWAS have all pressed Jammeh to respect the election result.
Barrow told Reuters in the capital Banjul that he expected Johnson Sirleaf’s delegation to ensure an “expedited transitional period” that would pave the way for a transfer of power.
“We are not talking about a military option. We want to safeguard our democracy and we want peace,” he said, but added that he was concerned for his own safety. “I have no official security. As president-elect, I should not be exposed in the way I am today,” he said.
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