"This
crisis has not been solved by these talks," said spokesman Halifa
Sallah, adding that more efforts are needed to narrow differences.
Sallah
spoke after Nigeria's president led talks Friday with Gambia's
President Yahya Jammeh and President-elect Adama Barrow in Gambia as
part of mediation efforts led by the West African regional bloc ECOWAS.
"The
expectation is that the Gambian people and the international community
will not sit and wait and preside over a country that is destroyed by
war — destroyed in terms of property, destroyed by human beings and
human beings suffering," Sallah said, stressing that Gambia's
constitution clearly spells out what is to happen on the day a
president's term expires. "The person declared elected should take and
assume office."
Meanwhile,
the African Union announced it will cease to recognize President Jammeh
as Gambia's legitimate leader as of Jan. 19, when his mandate expires.
The decision by the AU's Peace and Security Council warns Jammeh of
serious consequences if his actions lead to the "loss of innocent lives"
and calls on Gambia's security forces to exercise restraint.
Mohamed
Ibn Chambas, the U.N. special representative for West Africa and the
Sahel, told the U.N. Security Council Friday that the Nigerian-led
delegation was "to leave no doubt about the determination of ECOWAS to
use all necessary means, including force to have the will of the Gambian
people upheld."
If
this is deemed necessary, Chambas said, ECOWAS intends to seek the
endorsement of the AU Peace and Security Council and the Security
Council to deploy troops to Gambia.
The
political uncertainty has in the past 10 days sent several thousand
people, mostly children in buses accompanied by women, fleeing across
border to Senegal where they are likely staying with relatives or host
families, the United Nations Refugee Agency said Friday.
As
the international community looks for a peaceful way out of the crisis,
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari had been authorized to offer Jammeh
asylum, if necessary, during Friday's visit.
A
definitive plan by ECOWAS will be made after Buhari and Liberian
President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf continue discussions with other leaders,
and with Barrow in Bamako, Mali, where a France-
But
the West African regional bloc also has a military force on standby to
intervene if Jammeh does not step down.
Jammeh
at first accepted his Dec. 1 election loss, even making a telephone
call to concede on national television, but then changed his mind and
declared that "only Allah" can deny him victory. His party is now
contesting the results in court.
President-elect
Barrow is renewing his offer to Jammeh for direct discussions on the
crisis, telling the BBC that "I'll be very willing to talk to him
directly."
The
ruling party's court challenge to the election results shows
complications. Gambia's Supreme Court, short of judges, has said it
might not be able to consider the challenge until May, and Jammeh says
Gambia should await its decision.
Jammeh
took power in a coup in 1994 and is accused of gross rights violations
including arbitrary detentions, torture and the killings of opponents in
this tiny country of 1.9 million people that is nearly surrounded by
Senegal.
Jammeh
might be wary of a Nigerian promise of safe haven. Nigeria offered
asylum to Liberian warlord Charles Taylor in 2003 to help end the civil
war he started in 1989, but it was forced by international pressure to
hand Taylor over in 2006 for trial for war crimes committed in Sierra
Leone. Taylor was convicted in 2013 and is serving a 50-year sentence in
a British prison.
___
AP writers Michelle Faul in Lagos, Nigeria, and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed.
No comments:
Post a Comment