Gambia’s leader urged to avoid ‘bloodbath’

Mali’s president has urged the long-time leader of the Gambia, Yahya Jammeh, to step down from power and not cause a potential “bloodbath” in the African country by clinging on to power despite his election defeat and causing popular outrage.

According to Press TV, President Jammeh has announced he will not step down from power despite losing to internationally-backed opposition leader Adama Barrow in a presidential election in December last year.

The international community has been pushing the 51-year-old Jammeh — who projects himself as a wise and just leader despite accusations of torture, imprisonment, or even sometimes termination of his opponents — to peacefully hand over power at the end of his mandate on January 18.

“On January 19, I dare to hope that African wisdom will convince our brother (Jammeh)… [that he does] not need a bloodbath,” Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita Keita, who is hosting the 27th Africa-France summit, told media in the capital, Bamako, on Saturday.

“We have made a strong gesture. First, we have received the president,” said Keita, referring to President-elect Barrow.

Barrow arrived in Bamako on Friday after holding talks in the Gambian city of Banjul with Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, Liberian leader Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. His participation in the Africa-France summit was a sign of his recognition as the legitimate ruler of the Gambia.

The leaders of at least 30 nations had gathered in Mali to discuss security and development issues, as well as ways to reduce the exodus of refugee to Europe; however, Mali’s presidential crisis occupied the top place on the agenda.

ME