- Title: Gambia's President Adama Barrow departs Senegal for Banjul
- Date: 26th January 2017
- Summary: PLANE'S PROPELLERS STARTING UP MILITARY BAND IN FOREGROUND, PLANE TAXIING IN BACKGROUND PLANE TAXIING TO RUNWAY
- Embargoed: 9th February 2017 17:23
- Keywords: Gambia Adama Barrow Senegal Dakar
- Location: DAKAR, SENEGAL
- City: DAKAR, SENEGAL
- Country: Senegal
- Topics: Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA00560PYREV
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:An aircraft carrying Gambian President Adama Barrow left Dakar in Senegal on Thursday (January 26).
The new leader was heading back to Gambia's capital, Banjul, days after his predecessor Yahya Jammeh fled into exile under pressure from regional forces.
Barrow was inaugurated as president in neighbouring Senegal last week as mediators concluded an exit deal for Jammeh.
Hundreds of people are gathered along the streets of Banjul to welcome their new president.
Barrow, a former real estate agent, won a Dec. 1 election but Jammeh refused to step down, forcing his opponent to be inaugurated at the Gambian Embassy in neighbouring Senegal.
Jammeh fled to Equatorial Guinea last week as thousands of soldiers from the West African ECOWAS regional bloc were poised to remove him by force after 22 years of increasingly repressive rule marked by alleged torture and killings of opponents.
Barrow has asked the 7,000-strong West African military contingent to remain in Gambia for another six months, Chambas said. An ECOWAS official said they were studying the proposal.
Gambia, a tiny riverine nation surrounded by ally Senegal on three sides, has so far shown no signs of resistance to ECOWAS forces.
However, lingering questions remain as to the loyalty of the Republican Guard, thought to number about 400, who in the past protected Jammeh from coup attempts.
The whereabouts of members of alleged assassination squads known in Gambia as the "Junglers" were not known. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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