Breaking News: Civil war looms in Gambia, YAYAH JAMMEH to be treated a rebel leader – BBC reports

The Gambia’s President Yahya Jammeh will be treated like a “rebel leader” if he refuses to give up power when his term ends on 19 January, a spokesman for the coalition which defeated him in elections on 1 December has said.

Mr Jammeh, who first seized power in a coup in 1994, initially accepted defeat at the hands of opposition leader Adama Barrow, but has since launched court action to annul the result.

In a statement, coalition spokesman Halifa Sallah said: ”Any president who loses constitutional legitimacy becomes a rebel.”

”Anybody who is a military officer or civil servant who refuses to be under another constitutional authority obviously would also become a rebel.”

The West African regional bloc Ecowas said, after a summit of its heads of state on Saturday, that it would “take all necessary actions to enforce the results”.

Heads of state would attend Mr Barrow’s inauguration, due on 19 January, an Ecowas statement added.