2016–2017 Gambian constitutional crisis

A constitutional crisis occurred in Gambia following presidential elections in December 2016, in which challenger Adama Barrow achieved an upset victory over longtime incumbent Yahya Jammeh. It eventually concluded after a military intervention by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) led to Jammeh’s departure from the country.

Although Jammeh first accepted the victory of Adama Barrow on 1 December, he rejected the election results days later. Jammeh called for the election to be annulled, and appealed to the Supreme Court, which refused to rule on the matter. He then deployed troops to the capital of Banjul and the city of Serekunda. The National Assembly, where Jammeh’s Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction held an absolute majority, used emergency measures to extend Jammeh’s rule.

The United Nations and ECOWAS, an organisation The Gambia joined under Jammeh’s rule, called on him to step down. After he refused, ECOWAS assembled a coalition of military forces from Senegal, Nigeria, and Ghana to intervene in The Gambia using special provisions in the organisation’s charter. Jammeh’s term was initially scheduled to end on 19 January, and Barrow was sworn in as President of The Gambia in his country’s embassy in Senegal. At his request, ECOWAS troops entered the country that day without resistance of the National Army or the National Guard. The Navy explicitly recognised Barrow as President. ECOWAS troops reached Banjul on 21 January, and Jammeh left the country to exile in Equatorial Guinea. Barrow arrived to The Gambia as President on 26 January.