The Nigerian Air Force has deployed to Senegal as part of the Nigerian contingent of the Economic Community of West African States Military Intervention in Gambia.
ECOMIG is a standby force tasked by ECOWAS Heads of State to enforce the December 1, 2016 election mandate in the The Gambia.
The election was won by businessman Adama Barrow.
However, the incumbent, President Yahya Jammeh, has vowed not to quit, a development that necessitated the ECOWAS Heads of Government to mandate the region’s force to remove him.
The spokesman of the Nigerian Air Force, Group Captain Ayodele Famuyiwa, in a statement on Wednesday confirmed the movement of a contingent of 200 men and air assets comprising fighter jets, transport aircraft, Light Utility Helicopter as well as Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance aircraft to Dakar from where it is expected to operate into Gambia.
The deployment, Famuyiwa said, is also to forestall hostilities or breakdown of law and order that may result from the current political impasse in The Gambia.
Addressing the contingent before departure, the Chief of the Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Baba Abubakar, urged the troops to maintain discipline and be professional in their conduct.
Reminding them to be good ambassadors of Nigeria, Abubakar stated that no act of indiscipline by the contingent would be tolerated.
The contingent, led by Air Commodore Tajudeen Yusuf, was airlifted on Wednesday morning from 117 Air Combat Training Group, Kainji in Niger State.
Other troop contributing countries include Senegal, Ghana and countries within the sub-region.
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