African forces have set a Friday midday, January 20, 2017, deadline for defeated but sit-tight long-reigning leader Yahya Jammeh to quit or be forcibly ejected from the Gambian Presidential Villa in Banjul, reports said.

A report this morning in the Nigerian newspaper VANGUARD quoted Marcel Alain de Souza, head of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), as saying that African forces suspended Thursday a military operation to force The Gambia’s leader Yahya Jammeh to hand over power in favour of final talks to convince him to leave the country.

Talks will be led by Guinean president Alpha Condé in Banjul on Friday morning, according to de Souza.

“If by midday, he doesn’t agree to leave The Gambia under the banner of President Condé, we really will intervene militarily,” he added.