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TEODORO OBIANG, the dictator of oil-rich Equatorial Guinea, is used to shady guests. A decade ago, his Black Beach prison held Simon Mann, a British mercenary who was sentenced to 34 years for his role in the botched Wonga coup that tried to topple him. (Mr Mann won a presidential pardon in 2009.) In a fresh act of mercy, Mr Obiang has taken in another guest, whose quarters will doubtless be cushier. On January 21st he welcomed Yahya Jammeh, the former dictator of Gambia, whose people had tired of him after 22 years.

Mr Jammeh fled Gambia after a month-long stand-off with West Africas regional power bloc, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). It had threatened to send troops in after Mr Jammeh reneged on a pledge to hand over power to Adama Barrow (pictured), an opposition politician who won a presidential election in December.

Mr Jammeh and his new host are not known to have been close before, but they may find many reasons to get along. Both seized power in coups, and both have clung to it for decades: Mr Obiang, who has been in office for 37 years, is the worlds longest-serving political leader. Both also care little for human rights: Mr Jammeh withdrew Gambia from the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court last year; Mr Obiang never signed up in the first place. So Mr Jammeh may be free to enjoy his retirement without the threat of extradition and prosecution for all the dissidents who had plastic bags tied over their heads in his jails. As part of his luggage from Gambia, Mr Jammeh is said to have shipped out two Rolls-Royces, a Bentley and $11m in cash, so he should be comfortable too.

The allegations about Mr Jammehs last-minute looting were made by an adviser to Mr Barrow, Mai Ahmad Fatty, who claimed that the states coffers had been all but emptied. And this is only one of the problems facing Mr Barrow. As Egypt and Libya recently learned, there is more to ending a dictatorship than getting rid of the despot. Mr Barrow, who has never held office, inherits a country with little experience of democracy. He will govern via a shaky, seven-sided coalition whose only real common ground was an intense dislike of Mr Jammeh. Most Gambians also concede that for all its faults, Mr Jammehs police state managed to keep civil war, Ebola and jihadist terrorism at bay.

Mindful of the challenges, Mr Barrow plans to focus on reforming the economy and security forces rather than trying to lock up his predecessor. Instead he has proposed a truth and reconciliation commission. Though odious, Mr Jammeh has far less blood on his hands than, say, Liberias former president, Charles Taylor. Even if Mr Obiang could be persuaded to give up his guest, ECOWAS may simply deem it not worth the effort of pursuing him, particularly if it risks reopening old wounds.

Even so, the way in which ECOWAS rallied to Gambias defence is cause for cheer. It cements the principle that no one in West Africa can stage a coup or steal an election without risking sanctions or worse from the neighbours.

It might seem surprising that a region that includes some of the poorest countries in the world should be so strict about enforcing democratic normsunlike some other parts of Africa. Paul Melly of Chatham House, a think-tank in London, notes that ECOWAS has been honing its interventionist skills for more than a quarter of a century. It began in 1990, when the outbreak of the first Gulf war meant that America and other Western powers were too busy to get involved in the Liberian civil war. Instead, ECOWAS had to pick up the baton and send in its own peacekeepers. Although that intervention was not an unqualified success (the fighting continued and peacekeepers were accused of rampant looting), it broke with a tradition of turning a blind eye. Countries in the region realised that their neighbours problems could soon become theirs, Mr Melly says.

Tiny Gambia, with a population of just 1.9m, may be only a small step in the right direction, but it is still an important one. Two years ago ECOWAS tried to get its 15 members to agree that no head of state should serve more than two terms. The measure was vetoed by just two countries: Gambia and Togo. With Mr Jammeh gone, it may not be long before no leader, no matter how popular he claims to be, can dream of breaking Mr Obiangs record in office.

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After Gambia's dictator, democracy? - The Economist