Former president of The Gambia, Yahyah Jammeh, has departed the country.

Jammeh flew out on Saturday night with his family and he is believed to be on his way to Guinea, where he will be on exile.

This follows Friday’s final peace move by Conde and Mauritania’s President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, who persuaded him to vacate office peacefully.

In a statement issued on State TV on Friday night, Jammeh confirmed he was stepping down, to avoid bloodshed in The Gambia.

He said: “Fellow Gambians, my first preoccupation as president and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces and a patriot is to preserve at every instance and in every circumstance, the lives of Gambians and this is a duty I hold sacrosanct.

“As a Muslim and as a patriot, I believe that it is not necessary that any blood be shed.

“It is as a result of this that I have decided today (Friday) in good conscience to relinquish the mantle of leadership of this great nation.”

Jammeh was defeated in last month’s presidential election by Adama Barrow, who has since been sworn in as the country’s new president.