DAKAR, Senegal (AP) – Gambia’s defeated leader Yahya Jammeh is expected to leave soon for Guinea, and the new president said Saturday he plans to return home to take power once the situation is “clear.”
A visibly tired Adama Barrow told The Associated Press in an interview Saturday that he will enter Gambia once a security sweep has been completed. He has been in neighboring Senegal for his safety during a political standoff that came to the brink of a regional military intervention.
Barrow, who won December’s presidential elections, spoke just hours after Jammeh announced he would relinquish power, ending hours of last-minute negotiations with the leaders of Guinea and Mauritania.
“It is not yet confirmed information, but reliable sources say he’ll be leaving today,” Barrow told the AP. “We believe he’ll go to Guinea, but we are yet to confirm 100 percent, but that’s what we believe.”
In the Guinean capital, Conakry, the security minister was at the airport with jeeps full of well-armed military personnel, witnesses said.