West African leaders give Jammeh last chance to cede power

West African leaders on Friday said they would travel once again to The Gambia in a last-minute effort to convince Yahya Jammeh to cede power.

Presidents of Liberia and Guinea were expected to arrive in Banjul, capital of Gambia, to give Jammeh, who ruled the small West African nation for 22 years, a last chance to respect the constitution.

The announcement came hours after military forces of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) crossed from Senegal into Gambia in an attempt to search for Jammeh.

On Thursday, President Adama Barrow was sworn into office in the Gambian high commission in Dakar, Senegal.

Barrrow fled to Dakar on Saturday for security reasons.

Report says Jammeh’s whereabouts remained unknown as of Friday.

In December, Presidents Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia, Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria, Ernest Bai Koroma of Sierra Leone, and John Mahama of Ghana met Jammeh and Barrow in an attempt to manage a peaceful transition of power.

But those talks yielded no results.

Again on January 9, Buhari lead two other West African presidents and other citizens to meet with Jammeh.

Buhari in his capacity as mediator in chief traveled with his counterparts, Sirleaf and Koroma , as well as the immediate past president of Ghana, Mahama, to the Gambia to meet with Jammeh.

Jammeh lost Gambia’s presidential election to Barrow.

He initially accepted defeat and congratulated Barrow but changed his mind and decided to challenge the outcome of the election.