President Adama Barrow has defended the presence of Ecomig forces in The Gambia, saying the country needed back up forces in reforming the security sector.

Speaking at his first news conference since his re-election, President Barrow said: “I think people are misundertanding what is the mission of Ecowas in this country. The Ecowas is not just here to help get Yahya Jammeh out, no. You know when I was coming our security sector was really polluted.

“We needed to address security sector and we needed to reform…out of those reforms we needed a back up force to support us to reform and part of this reform also [include] training.”

“Right now most of the State House guards are [being] trained outside [the country]. We still don’t get the number for State House. We are still limited,” the president told reporters on Tuesday at State House.

Reporting by Adama Makasuba