Gambia’s President-elect Adama Barrow will be sworn in at a ceremony in the Gambian embassy in neighbouring Senegal on Thursday, diplomatic sources and party officials said.

“We have confirmation. It is very important to us that he will be sworn in today. Then we can make arrangements for him to go back to Gambia,” Isatou Toure, a senior Barrow aide, told Reuters. The ceremony is due to take place at 1600 GMT.

Barrow defeated President Yahya Jammeh in a December election but Jammeh has refused to step aside despite regional pressure to oust him if he persists in clinging on to power.