Gambia’s newly sworn-in president has ordered the country’s armed forces to abandon any loyalty to dictator Yahya Jammeh, as troops from neighbouring Senegal crossed the border to oust him.
Adama Barrow, who won Gambia’s elections in December but left the country last week for fear that Mr Jammeh’s security forces might kill him, took his oath of office in an improvised ceremony at the modest Gambian embassy office in Senegal.
In a brief televised speech made in a cramped function room, he hailed his inauguration as a “victory for the nation”, but warned Mr Jammeh’s security forces that they would now be deemed “rebels” if they did not switch sides.
Mr Barrow spoke as a force of more than 1,000 troops, mandated by the regional ECOWAS power bloc, crossed into Gambian territory after two days massing at the border.