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Gambia president-elect in Senegal until inauguration

Gambia's President Yahya Jammeh, in power for more than 22 years, refuses to cede power, calling Dec. 1 elections invalid.

ECOWAS has said it will consider military intervention if Jammeh tries to prevent the inauguration. Senegal and Nigeria are contributing to a standby force.

Arun Durvasula and Sankararaman obtained 405 genomes from four west African populations and used statistical techniques to work out whether an influx of genes from interbreeding was likely to have happened in the distant past. The analysis suggested that it had in every case.

The scientists went on to scour the African genomes for chunks of DNA that looked different to modern human genes. This allowed them to pull out sequences that most probably came from an ancient relative. By comparing these with genes from Neanderthals and Denisovans, they concluded that the DNA had to come from an unknown group of archaic humans.

“They seem to have made a pretty substantial impact on the genomes of the present day individuals we studied,” Sankararaman said. “They account for 2% to 19% of their genetic ancestry.” The four populations studied came from three countries: two from Nigeria, and one each from Sierra Leone and the Gambia.