BANJUL, Gambia -- Gambia's new vice president will be a female leader of the opposition coalition that helped put new President Adama Barrow in power, a presidential spokesman announced Monday, as regional troops continued security sweeps to prepare for Barrow's return to the country he now rules.
The appointment of Aja Fatoumata Tambajang as vice president was announced at a news conference by coalition spokesman Halifa Sallah. He said the rest of Barrow's Cabinet would be revealed today.
A former U.N. Development Program staff member, Tambajang was instrumental in helping Gambia's opposition parties overcome their differences and unite against ousted President Yahya Jammeh, who seized power in a coup and ruled for 22 years.
Barrow remained in Senegal on Monday, where he traveled more than a week ago when it was uncertain whether Jammeh would acknowledge defeat in the December election and step down.
After days of mediation, and as a regional intervention force deployed to apply pressure, Jammeh finally agreed to leave, flying out late Saturday night. Mediators said his destination was Equatorial Guinea, though that country has yet to confirm Jammeh's arrival.
Barrow's return date has not been fixed. The armed forces have pledged loyalty to him, and regional forces on Monday continued to secure the official residence, the State House, in Banjul in advance of Barrow's arrival.
The West African troops were to complement efforts by the Gambian military to stabilize the country, Chief of Defense Staff Ousman Bargie said Sunday in remarks broadcast on state-owned Gambia radio and television.
"President Barrow wishes to inform all Gambians and non-Gambians that the [Economic Community of West African States] troops that stepped onto Gambian soil are not an occupational force, but are here only to help complement the efforts of the Gambian armed forces to stabilize the country so that the society can be normalized," Bargie said.
Meanwhile, Equatorial Guinea's opposition denounced the government's decision to welcome Jammeh.
President Teodoro Obiang will be held responsible "for what might occur" as a result of Jammeh's presence on the country's soil, according to a statement emailed Monday by Andres Esono Ondo, secretary-general of the opposition Convergence for Social Democracy.
Jammeh should not qualify for political asylum, the Democratic Opposition Front said in a separate statement Sunday, because he triggered Gambia's crisis by refusing to step down for weeks after he lost the December vote to Barrow.
"We are not against Pan-Africanism, but we are in favor of a more objective Pan-Africanism that does not consist in just bringing over the waste of Africa," the group said.
Information for this article was contributed by Robbie Corey-Boulet of The Associated Press and by Suwaibou Touray of Bloomberg News.
A Section on 01/24/2017