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Gambia President Barrow's Party Signs Deal for Jammeh's Return

The Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction (APRC) has announced that it has reached an agreement with the National People's Party (NPP) to re-elect President Adama Barrow for a second term.

APRC, the former ruling party of former leader Yahya Jammeh, lost the 2016 election to the independent candidate Barrow, who is now the leader of the NPP. After the announcement of the result by the Independent Election Commission, the former president conceded defeat but later made a dramatic turnabout, claiming that the election was not fair and called for a re-election. Jammeh's refusal to step down resulted in political impasse in which about 40,000 Gambians fled to Senegal.

After months of negotiation, APRC and NPP signed an agreement on what they described as the interest of the country and in the interest of national reconciliation.

Part of the agreement APRC officials said, is to ensure that Yahya Jammeh, who is currently is in exile in Equatorial Guinea, returns to the country peacefully, with dignity.

But the ruling party has said the purported Memorandum of Understanding in circulation, is a manufactured, malicious piece of junk, calculated by detractors to undermine the NPP/APRC Alliance to create confusion and suspicion in the minds of Gambians.

The Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission had created a reparations fund. This was part of monies recovered from sales of Yahya Jammeh's assets and no further details were disclosed. The government promised to pay another U.S.$1 million but that did not materialise. Part of this reparations fund has already been spent on emergency payments while public hearings were still ongoing.

InFocus

Claire Bargelès/RFI

Karaiba avenue in Banjul, Gambia.

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