Gambian Truth And Reconciliation Hearings End

Gambia’s truth and reconciliation commission concluded on Friday after over two years of harrowing testimony into alleged rights abuses committed under ex-president Yahya Jammeh.

Jammeh seized power in 1994 as part of a bloodless military coup in the tiny West African state.

He then ruled with an iron fist until January 2017, when he fled to Equatorial Guinea after losing presidential elections to a relative unknown, Adama Barrow.

Gambia’s government subsequently established a Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC) to investigate the litany of abuses allegedly committed under Jammeh.

Since 2019, 392 witnesses delivered chilling testimony about state-sanctioned torture, death squads, rape and witch hunts during the former autocrat’s 22-year rule.

The commission also examined the forced treatment of HIV patients with phony herbal cures, and the massacre of some 50 African migrants in 2005, among other notorious incidents.

Closing the hearings on Friday, TRRC Chairperson Lamin Ceesay said the majority of witnesses had been “victims of atrocities meted out to innocent civilians by the state”.

He noted that perpetrators had also testified.

“The commission of these atrocities by Jammeh and his cohorts achieved the desired effect of instilling fear among the Gambian population,” Ceesay said.

“It also gave them time and space to pillage the resources of the country”.

The TRRC is due to hand a report on its findings to President Barrow in July.

While the truth commission has no power to convict, its report is highly anticipated by rights groups to see whether it will recommend pursuing criminal charges against Jammeh.

The 56-year-old ex-dictator still has his supporters in the nation, but there have also been calls for him to be returned to the country for prosecution.