United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon has condemned the takeover of Gambia’s electoral commission by security forces and is calling on them to vacate the building immediately.
A statement Wednesday from the secretary-general’s spokesman also asked the Gambian military to take no further actions that could jeopardize a peaceful transfer of power in the tiny West African country.
President Yayha Jammeh initially conceded defeat to challenger Adama Barrow in the December 1 presidential election but later retracted the concession. On Tuesday, members of Gambia’s ruling party asked the country’s supreme court to void the election results.
Gambia President elect, Adama Barrow, center, walks after a meeting with Ecowas delegation in Banjul, Gambia, Dec. 13, 2016.
A delegation of four West African heads of state led by Liberia’s Ellen Johnson Sirleaf met with Jammeh in Gambia on Tuesday.
Upon her return, Johnson Sirleaf said the parties concerned “committed themselves to peace and harmony,” and said the matter would be discussed at a summit of the West African bloc ECOWAS later this week in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja.
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