President-elect Adama Barrow flew out of The Gambia late Friday to meet West African leaders attending a summit in Bamako with hopes of ending the country's political crisis, Nigeria's foreign minister said.

"The ECOWAS team has decided to depart Banjul tonight in the company of president-elect Barrow headed for Bamako, Mali," Geoffrey Onyeama told journalists following crisis talks with Barrow and President Yahya Jammeh, who is refusing to leave power. ECOWAS, a 15-nation bloc of West African states, has called on Jammeh to step down.