Nigeria sends troops, jets to Senegal for Gambia force
Nigeria troops
Nigeria has sent 200 soldiers and air assets including fighter jets to Senegal as part of a regional force to enforce the result of Gambia’s contested election, the country’s air force said Wednesday.
The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) said it had “today moved a contingent of 200 men and air assets comprising fighter jets, transport aircraft, light utility helicopter as well as intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft to Dakar from where it is expected to operate into Gambia”.
The Economic Community Of West African States has repeatedly called on leader Yahya Jammeh to respect the result of the December 1 election and step down after 22 years in power.
Jammeh on Tuesday declared a state of emergency as President-elect Adama Barrow, who is currently in Senegal, maintained his inauguration will go ahead as planned on Thursday on Gambian soil.
Nigeria said the forces were part of an ECOWAS military standby intervention force “tasked by ECOWAS heads of state to enforce the December 1, 2016 election mandate in The Gambia”.
“The deployment is also to forestall hostilities or breakdown of law and order that may result from the current political impasse in The Gambia,” it added in a statement.
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3 Comments
Terrorist Mumuhead Buhari has no moral right to send his Islamist Army to Gambia with his claim to forestall the break down of law and order in that country when he could not maintain peace or forestall the massacre of more than eight hundred Christian indigenes of Southern Kaduna.
I have great sympathy for those innocent young soldiers going to Gambia to die out of Buhari’s stupidity. Buhari wants to solve Gambia’s problem when he cannot solve Nigeria’s problem. The question is how many Gambians have died since the result of the presidential election was announced in Gambia and how many Nigerians have died in Nigeria in the same period? My fear is that those innocent young men will come back to Nigeria from Gambia in body bags.
Sometimes I wonder if people read before they comment. The decision was made by ECOWAS and not Buhari. This has nothing to do with the unrest in Southern Kaduna and other parts of Nigeria. Is 22 years of power not enough for Jammeh? Why are we Africans this greedy and selfish?
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