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President of The Gambia, Adama Barrow, is to embark on a tour of ECOWAS countries that helped him to assume office.
A statement from his office said he had been scheduled to arrive in the Sierra Leonean capital, Freetown, on Wednesday. Barrow will also visit Ghana, Liberia and Nigeria.
Barrow assumed office after disputed elections last year which ECOWAS leaders judged to be free and fair.
The countries’ leaders played a key role in efforts by the regional Economic Community of West African States, to negotiate a peaceful exit for former President Yahya Jammeh.
Jammeh had refused to step down on losing the December 1, 2016 polls.
Jammeh, in the face of advancing troops from Ghana, Senegal and Nigeria deployed by the regional group, subsequently flew out to Equatorial Guinea where he currently lives in exile.
President Barrow early in March fulfilled his promise to make his first international outing to Gambia’s next door neighbour, Senegal, as the leading player in the resolution of the post-December poll standoff.
President Barrow’s Ecowas tour comes about a week after a controversial visit to the Republic of Congo (Brazzaville), which divided his country over the alleged undemocratic credentials of President Dennis Sassou Nguesso.
Critics said his visit to the central African nation amounted to an endorsement of President Nguessou, who they say represented everything Jammeh stood for.
Congo’s proximity to Equatorial Guinea, whose leader is a friend of President Nguesso, also formed the basis of suspicion on the role Jammeh’s presence there might have played in the visit.
