Calls for Prayer and Fasting as Thousands Flee Gambia

Thousands of people fearing violence are fleeing the tiny African nation of Gambia as the country’s political crisis deepens. “I feel as a Gambian, I should just stay but whatever happens will happen,” one concerned citizen told reporters. “But I’m not that happy with the way the situation, the political impasse has been in the country.”

That impasse erupted last month when Gambia’s longtime president, Yahya Jammeh, was defeated in a hotly contested presidential race. The new president-elect, Adama Barrow, is supposed to be inaugurated on Thursday, but Jammeh, who first seized power in a coup in 1994, has refused to step down and declared a state of emergency. READ MORE