Gambia’s former president, Yahya Jammeh will now leave Banjul on Saturday with President Alpha Conde of Guinea, to begin a new life in exile.
This followed Friday’s final peace move by Conde and Mauritania’s President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz.
The two West African leaders travelled to Banjul to persuade the long-ruling Jammeh to leave peacefully before West African forces pounced on him.
In a statement issued on state TV on Friday night, Jammeh announced that he was stepping down, a superfluous announcement as he was already no more the leader, having been denied recognition by the world.
All indications are that Jammeh will be going into exile in Guinea.
A senior adviser to new President Adama Barrow said talks to finalise the exile deal were holding up his exit. “I can assure you that he has agreed to leave,” Mai Ahmad Fatty, Barrow’s special advisor, said in Senegal’s capital Dakar.
He could not say where Jammeh would go into exile.
President of The Gambia, Adama Barrow had earlier confirmed Yahya Jammeh’s stepping down.
Barrow, on his twitter handle on Friday, @adama_barrow said: “I would like to inform you that Yahya Jammeh has agreed to step down.
“He is scheduled to depart Gambia today. #NewGambia”
Barrow succeeded Yahya Jammeh, who lost in the Dec. 1 presidential election and refused to vacate office when his term expired midnight on Thursday.
Gambia’s Chief of Defence, Ousman Badjie, on Friday pledged loyalty to President Barrow.