ECOWAS and The Gambia's 2016–2017 transition
Gambian voters and the Independent Electoral Commission created a certified succession claim; ECOWAS, the African Union, and the United Nations then coordinated recognition, mediation, coercive diplomacy, and a military deployment that helped transfer power from Yahya Jammeh to Adama Barrow without a sustained battle between Gambian and regional forces. The immediate result is better established than any single causal explanation, the intervention's international-law basis remains disputed, and ECOMIG's continued presence through at least January 2026 turned a bounded electoral guarantee into a contested security and reform mission.
How can a regional body make a small state's election result enforceable when an authoritarian incumbent controls the security apparatus and refuses to leave?