The UN’s regional envoy, Mohammed Ibn Chambas, has said that the Gambian President Yahya Jammeh will be “strongly sanctioned” if he tries to stay in power. The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, along with the US, also urged the Gambian security forces to leave the country’s electoral commission office, which they had seized on Tuesday.
Mr Jammeh initially accepted his defeat defeat to Adama Barrow before changing his mind. The leaders of Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia and Sierra Leone failed to convince him on Tuesday to hand over power. The US embassy in Banjul also demanded that security forces withdraw, saying the “unnecessary and unprovoked show of force is seen as a move to subvert the democratic process”. Mr Jammeh’s party also challenged the election in the country’s Supreme Court.