Banjul — West African troops approached the Gambian capital Sunday to secure President Adama Barrow’s arrival from neighbouring Senegal, as controversy erupted over the assurances offered to Yahya Jammeh to guarantee his departure. Jammeh flew out of Gambia on Saturday, ending 22 years at the helm of the tiny West African nation, and landed in Equatorial Guinea where he is expected to settle with his family. The Senegalese general leading a joint force of troops from five African nations said soldiers had entered Gambia to "control strategic points to ensure the safety of the population and facilitate ... Barrow’s assumption of his role". About 100 heavily armed Senegalese troops travelling with armoured vehicles were waiting to move into the capital, witnesses said. Senegalese forces had briefly crossed into the former British colony on Thursday but pulled out shortly afterwards, with Sunday’s troop movement the first by soldiers from the joint force. Marcel Alain de Souza, a top o...
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