- Title: Gambians celebrate homecoming of new president Adama Barrow
- Date: 26th January 2017
- Summary: BANJUL, GAMBIA (JANUARY 26, 2017) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF GAMBIAN PRESIDENT ADAMA BARROW WAVING TO CHEERING CROWD FROM MOVING CAR OUTSIDE AIRPORT / ECOWAS (ECONOMIC COMMUNITY OF WEST AFRICAN STATES) TROOPS STANDING NEARBY PEOPLE ON STREET AND ON CARS CHEERING CONVOY OF ECOWAS TROOPS FOLLOWING BARROW'S CAR PEOPLE ON TOP OF MINI BUS, WAVING FLAG AND CHEERING (SOUNDBITE) (English) UNIDENTIFIED BANJUL RESIDENT AND BARROW SUPPORTER, SAYING: "Yeah today I'm so glad, because we are welcoming our new president, President Adama Barrow, and we are expecting that (he will) create a lot of jobs for the youths, so that the employment rate can go higher and higher. So that we say no more bad way, we sit in our country and work here. That's what we need. And that's what we're expecting from him also." VARIOUS OF ECOWAS TROOPS IN ARMOURED VEHICLES VARIOUS OF PEOPLE DANCING, BEATING DRUMS / BLOWING WHISTLES MAN PLAYING SMALL GUITAR (SOUNDBITE) (English) UNIDENTIFIED BANJUL RESIDENT AND BARROW SUPPORTER, SAYING: "I'm here to welcome my president, yeah because we are very happy to be here today, welcoming the president of the third republic of the Gambia, which is Adama Barrow. So today is our happiest day. We are here to enjoy, and he will be here around four, happy to see us, as we are preparing for him and welcome him in his country back." CROWD OUTSIDE AIRPORT
- Embargoed: 9th February 2017 19:37
- Keywords: Banjul Adama Barrow celebration presidency politics Gambia
- Location: BANJUL, GAMBIA
- City: BANJUL, GAMBIA
- Country: Gambia
- Topics: Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA00160PYXQF
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Thousands of people lined the streets of Gambia's capital Banjul on Thursday (January 26) to welcome home new President Adama Barrow days after authoritarian leader Yahya Jammeh fled into exile under pressure from regional forces.
Clad in a long white African tunic, Barrow smiled and waved from a moving car as he drove through crowds of cheering people, excited at his presidency and with hopes that he will improve employment rates in the country.
"We are expecting that (President Adama Barrow will) create a lot of jobs for the youths, so that employment rate can go higher and higher", said one young man said.
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's 22 years of increasingly repressive rule came to an end last week after he fled to Equatorial Guinea as thousands of soldiers from the West African ECOWAS regional bloc were poised to remove him by force.
Barrow's surprise ballot box victory and the determination of Western and African countries to uphold it is being celebrated as a moment of democratic hope for Africa. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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