West African leaders did not agree to immunity for Yahya Jammeh during negotiations that convinced Gambia’s longtime ruler to flee into exile, Senegal’s foreign minister said on Sunday.
No immunity for Gambia's Yahya Jammeh, Senegal Foreign minister says
Regional leaders had not gone as far as agreeing immunity despite Jammeh’s attempts to secure this, Senegalese Foreign Minister Mankeur Ndiaye told Reuters.
He said that “President Jammeh and his team concocted a declaration to be endorsed by (regional bloc) ECOWAS, the United Nations and the African Union that gave him every guarantee, essentially impunity.”
The foreign minister made his comments after the AU and the UN published a joint declaration from the three bodies “with the purpose of reaching a peaceful resolution to the political situation in The Gambia.”
In it, they pledged, among other things, to protect Jammeh’s rights “as a citizen, a party leader and a former Head of State”, to prevent the seizure of property belonging to him and his allies, and to ensure he can eventually return to Gambia.
However, Ndiaye played down the significance of the document.