Banjul, The Gambia – Ayesha Jammeh was only 13-years-old when her uncle, the former Gambian president Yaya Jammeh, ordered the killing of her father who was also his very own brother. Ayesha never imagined she would have a front-row seat her father’s executioner’s public confession.
Report by Mae Azango, Senior New Narratives Correspondent
“I thought after all these years I was healed from the trauma of my father’s death, but when Omar A. Jallow, the Jungler who killed him, took the stand to explain, he had no remorse at all. He was bragging and beating his legs as if he had won a battle,” says Ayesha.
“Immediately, it came as a flashback to me like my father had just been murdered, and I cried so hard,” she says.
Ayesha and thousands of Gambians witnessed Jallow’s testimony unfold over more than four hours on July 24 and 25 at the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission in Banjul, the capital of Gambia. Jallow admitted the group killed 48 African migrants—among them 30 Ghanaians—Ayesha’s father and one of Gambia’s most prominent journalists Deyda Hydara.
Jallow and two other Junglers—Malick Jatta and Amadou Badjie—had been released from jail so that they could testify to the TRRC.
Ayesha now helps run a center for survivors, who were targeted by Jammeh’s regime, and the families of those who were killed, tortured and disappeared under his 22-years of military rule. The center, which came into being three years ago, was initially made up of five families, including Ayesha’s. It was established to advocate for perpetrators to face justice and cater to other needs of victims.
Ayesha explains that her father and his sister, her aunt, had gone missing in 2005. Both of them were close relatives of President Jammeh. She says, according to the Junglers who testified before the TRRC, Jammeh ordered her father’s death because he was an advocate in their village of Kanilai, and one of those who questioned his brother’s use of violence.
The Junglers first took her father away and then released him. But when Haruna was arrested the second time, he never made it back home.
Ayesha says her father was an ordinary man who advocated for the people of his village and was never a part of his brother’s government.
Ayesha is one among hundreds of victims who lost relatives who allegedly suffered torture and death, under the orders of the former President Yaya Jammeh. At the TRRC hearings that have been unfolding since January, many victims have publicly accused Jammeh of ordering the Junglers to kill anyone who opposed his government.
Quality Television, an independent station contracted by the TRRC, is airing its testimonies across the nation. The commission has documented dozens of alleged atrocities.
The act establishing Gambia’s TRRC acknowledges human rights violations were widespread throughout Jammeh’s two decades of rule. In most cases, disappearances were not investigated, and perpetrators have not been brought to justice. Around 42,026 statements have been taken by witnesses so far, with victims slowly coming forth to give testimony.
On 13 December 2017, the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC) Act was adopted by Gambia’s National Assembly and assented by the President on January 13, 2018. The TRRC Act mandates the commission to gauge the causes and extent of violations and abuses of human rights committed from July 1994 to January 2017 and to consider the granting of reparations to victims. The Commission comprises 11 men and women from all different tribes in Gambia, who are considered distinguished in their profession and of “high moral character.”
Many Gambians initially appeared optimistic that they might see justice. However, the release of the Junglers, who were similar to Charles Taylor’s extra-judicial paramilitary group, the Anti Terrorist Unit (ATU), has raised questions about the possible outcomes of the commission’s work.
After testifying before the commission, three Junglers were released, including Jallow. The notorious Junglers unit comprised of over 30 men, many of whom fled after Jammeh’s hasty exit from Gambia following his defeat in democratic elections in 2017. The group’s name was the National Intelligence Unit but has now been changed to States Intelligence Services in a reformed move by current President Adama Barrow. The Junglers who remain in Gambia were detained for two years, with those who testified being released. This has stirred fear among the family members of their victims, such as Ayesha.
“Our government should find a way to prosecute these people, because a killer will always be a killer, and a Jungler will always be a Jungler,” says Ayesha. “I say this because, if a Jungler does not have a job to earn his living, anyone can pay him to kill and he would accept the offer.”
There are parallels with Liberia’s contested Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), whose recommendations for prosecutions were ignored, and alleged perpetrators were left to walk free. The TRC found that 250,000 Liberians lost their lives during the conflict. The exact numbers of how many people were allegedly killed by former President Jammeh remains unknown, because witnesses, survivors and victims are only now coming forth to speak out after two decades of silence.
The bragging of Junglers about the killings they committed, reminds Liberian observers about Liberia’s own TRC hearings in 2008, during which warlords accused of ordering atrocities against civilians, claimed they fought for peace.
“Some said they owed no apology to the Liberian people for violence they committed, while Sekou Damate Konneh said Liberians should build him a monument because he removed Charles Taylor from power,” said Aaron Weah, the Liberian director of Search for Common Ground, an organization that works on conflict resolution.
Mr. Weah said the difference between the both commissions, is that Liberia went through a civil war, with warlords taking part in the conflict. Whereas, Gambia was ruled over by a dictator who hired out hitmen, like the Junglers.
“The Minister of Justice is pushing for an amnesty for the Junglers because he believes more Junglers would come forward to testify. This is why some were released. I feel for the victims’ reactions of freeing some of the Junglers because they were President Jammeh’s most notorious killing machines, who killed and secretly buried people all over the Gambia,” says Weah, whose Search for Common Ground is working in Gambia.
Aboubacar Tambedou, Gambia’s Minister of Justice said in August that the release of the Junglers was not amnesty, according to the local Foroyaa newspaper. However, Tambedou said outrage over the release of the three Junglers was “understandable”, the newspaper reported.
The Gambia TRRC is mandated to conduct hearings and upon completion will make recommendations to the government.
Ayesha is yet to testify before the TRRC because the commissioners are currently out of the country conducting diaspora hearings.
Ayesha says she wants to see Jammeh pay for what he did to people, despite the fact that he is her relative.
“My dad was a relative to Jammeh, but he did not see it that way, because if he had valued the relationship he had with my father, he would have spared him, but instead he took him away from us by ordering him killed. So long he did not spare my father he could not spare any human being,” she says.
“For me it is not about family but about Gambia and the dignity and rights of people,” she says. “So being related to him does not mean I have to support his crimes against humanity.”
This story was collaboration with New Narratives as part of the West Africa Justice Reporting Project. Funding was provided by Australian Aid. the funder had no say in the story’s content.
