Gambia president-elect demands Jammeh step down ‘now’

Gambian president-elect Adama Barrow said on Monday that longtime leader Yahya Jammeh should step down immediately after Jammeh reversed his decision to concede defeat following a presidential election.

“I think he should step down now,” Barrow told AFP. “He has lost the election, we don’t want to waste time, we want this country to start moving.”

Jammeh’s party announced a legal challenge on Saturday over the December 1 election in which he had already conceded defeat to Barrow.

Barrow is due to welcome a heavyweight delegation of African heads of state and UN representatives Tuesday to persuade Jammeh to go, which the president-elect said gave him confidence he would soon take power.

“It’s giving us confidence and it will give confidence to every Gambian that the world is concerned about Gambia,” he said.

Diplomatic sources told AFP the delegation is likely to include UN West Africa envoy Mohamed Ibn Chambas, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, and Liberian leader Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in her capacity as head of the west African bloc ECOWAS.

Jammeh has led the tiny sliver of a nation of just under two million people for 22 years since taking power in a coup.