DAKAR, Senegal (AP) —  Gambia's defeated President Yahya Jammeh must cede power by noon Friday or he will be dislodged by a regional force that has already moved into the country, West African officials said.

If Jammeh refuses to leave Gambia by midday the regional troops will force him out, said Marcel Alain de Souza, chairman of the West African regional bloc, ECOWAS.

A West African regional force including tanks moved into Gambia Thursday evening and has met no resistance, said de Souza. The regional force charged into Gambia after the inauguration of Adama Barrow as the country's new president and the U.N. Security Council voted to approve the regional military intervention.

Barrow, who won Gambia's presidential election in December, was sworn into office at the Gambian embassy in neighboring Senegal, where he was for his safety.