Adama Barrow has been sworn in as Gambia’s president at a ceremony in the country’s embassy in neighbouring Senegal, as regional troops prepared to back him in a showdown with the defiant incumbent, Yahya Jammeh.
The country has been in a state of political uncertainty since Jammeh refused to cede power to the winner of last month’s presidential election, using the courts and parliament to try to extend his 22-year rule.
Barrow was inaugurated in a hastily arranged ceremony in a small embassy room that held about 40 people, including Senegal’s prime minister and the head of the Gambia’s electoral commission.
A large TV screen broadcast the swearing-in ceremony to several hundred watching outside the embassy.
