The Gambian constitutional crisis that followed the controversial presidential elections of December 2016 may have been put to rest, however, the lessons learnt, the role of ECOWAS in mitigating the impasses and the controversial nature of the intervention continues to be a topical theme among historians and scholars of international relations. The sanctioning of the peace operation by both the UN Security Council and the African Union (AU) legitimizes it, the peaceful outcome further allows us to adjudge the mission as justifiable and recommend it as a means of entrenching and protecting democracy in Africa. © 2019 Rossiiskaya Akademiya Nauk, Institut Istorii (Russian Academy of Sciences, Institute of General Hist. All rights reserved.