Four West African leaders meet on Gambia

     

Four West African leaders, including President Muhammadu Buhari, have commenced a meeting on the final strategy to get President Yahya Jammeh out of office.

Jammeh was defeated by opposition Admama Barrow, who is supposed to be inaugurated on January 19.

The refusal to concede defeat by Jammeh is the main focus of the West African leaders who have joined the rest of the world to ask Jammeh to vacate office.

The four leaders who met on Monday in Abuja also included the immediate past President of Ghana, John Mahama; President of Liberia, Mrs Ellen Sirleaf; President of Senegal, Mr. Macky Sall.

The meeting is in continuation of discussion on the crisis brewing in The Gambia.

But the Vice President of Sierra-Leone was yet to arrive when the meeting started.

Nigerian Foreign Minister Geoffrey Onyeama said the Abuja talks will discuss further steps to be taken.

“There are some disturbing information the (Nigerian) president (Muhammadu Buhari) is hearing which he needs to verify and the Abuja meeting will take a final decision,” he said, without elaborating.

Meanwhile, the United States warned its citizens against visiting Gambia, whose white beaches are a draw for tourists, and told those there to considering leaving.

“The U.S. Department of State warns U.S. citizens against travel to The Gambia because of the potential for civil unrest and violence in the near future,” the statement said.