A long-awaited report into claims of abuse perpetrated under former Gambian President Yahya Jammeh’s 22-year administration has recommended that criminal charges be brought against those involved.
Rights organisations have long advocated for convictions for a slew of alleged crimes perpetrated under Jammeh’s presidency, which ended in 2017. These include the deployment of death squads and rape.
The Truth, Reconciliation, and Reparations Commission (TRRC) submitted the 14,000-page document to President Adama Barrow on Thursday, nine days before a presidential election in which exiled Jammeh has encouraged his followers to vote for the opposition.
According to the report, 240 to 250 individuals died at the hands of the government or its operatives.
It suggested that the “persons who bear the greatest responsibility for abuses” be punished but did not identify anybody in particular.
“To forgive and forget with impunity the violations and abuses … would not only undermine reconciliation but would also constitute a massive and egregious cover-up of the crimes committed,” the TRRC said in a statement.
The panel’s conclusions follow almost two years of hearings investigating Jammeh-era atrocities. Nearly 400 witnesses testified of state-sanctioned torture, death squads, rape, and “witch hunts”, typically by Jammeh’s death squads.
Jammeh, who fled to Equatorial Guinea in 2016 after losing an election to Barrow, has rejected all claims of misconduct.
