West
African leaders are still pursuing mediation to ensure a peaceful transfer of
power in The Gambia, where President Yahya Jammeh refused to accept defeat in
an election last month, Liberia’s President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said on
Saturday.
Sirleaf
told reporters, after a meeting among regional leaders in Ghana’s capital
Accra, that regional bloc ECOWAS did not yet intend to deploy its standby
military force in Gambia.
“We
are committed to a peaceful mediation and a peaceful transfer of power in The
Gambia ... We will continue to pursue that for now,” Sirleaf, who chairs the
15-member body, said.
Asked
if the regional group would deploy a standby force soon, she said “No”, adding
that ECOWAS was closely monitoring proceedings in Gambia’s Supreme Court where
Jammeh is challenging the poll result.
Nigerian
Foreign Minister Geoffrey Onyeama said ECOWAS would hold a meeting on Monday in
Abuja to discuss further steps.
“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.
Buhari
has been appointed by ECOWAS as mediator.
Jammeh,
a former coup leader who has ruled Gambia for 22 years, initially accepted his
defeat by opposition figure Adama Barrow in the Dec. 1 election. But a week
later reversed his position, vowing to hang onto power, despite a wave of
regional and international condemnation.
Mohamed
Ibn Chambas, the top U.N. official in West Africa, also attended the
closed-door meeting, which was the first official engagement by Ghana’s new
President Nana Akufo-Addo who was sworn in on Saturday.
Diplomats
are concerned the impasse over the poll could escalate quickly into violence.
The
United States warned its citizens on Saturday 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.
Source:
ACCRA (Reuters)
