The president of the Republic, His Excellency, Sheikh Professor Alhaji Dr Yahya Jammeh left Banjul early this morning for Ivory Coast where he will attend the Ecowas Heads of State and Government Summit on Guinea Bissau and Mali.

Meanwhile, the 15-member states ofEcowas has been rattled by successive crises in Mali and Guinea Bissau over the past month. In Mali, a group of renegade soldiers ousted the president in Bamako on March 22, claiming to act against the government's inability to stop a Tuareg rebellion in the north. Since then however, the Tuaregs and al-Qaeda-affiliated Islamists have conquered the entire northern half of the country.

Amid a barrage of international condemnation, the junta handed power back to civilian authority but the coup leaders have continued to flex its muscles. Ecowas has also condemned last week's coup in Guinea-Bissau and the junta's subsequent decision to appoint a failed presidential hopoeful to lead a two-year transition to democracy.