Rights groups accuse Jammeh of killing Nigerians, Ghanaians
The Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Trial International yesterday indicted Gambia’s expresident Yahya Jammeh over alleged extrajudicial killings of over fifty Nigerians and Ghanaians in July 2005.
In 2017, Jammeh was removed from office as president of The Gambia through a coalition of ECOWAS Armed Forces, which emplaced President Adama Barrow.
HRW, in a statement by its Lawyer Reed Brody in Accra said Jammeh had deployed a paramilitary unit “Junglers” to summarily execute more than fifty Nigerians, Ghanaians and other West African migrants.
They said interviews with thirty former Gambian officials, including eleven officers directly involved in the incident, revealed that the migrants, who were bound for Europe, were suspected of being mercenaries’ intent on overthrowing Jammeh.
They alleged that the migrants were murdered after having been detained by Jammeh’s closest deputies in the army, navy, and police forces.
The rights groups said, the witnesses identified the “Junglers,” a notorious unit that took its orders directly from Jammeh, as those who carried out the killings.
“The West African migrants weren’t murdered by rogue elements, but by a paramilitary death squad taking orders from president Jammeh,” said Reed Brody, counsel at Human Rights Watch.
“Jammeh’s subordinates then destroyed key evidence to prevent international investigators from learning the truth.”
They added that, “As many as ten of the migrants were believed to be Nigerians, but their names have never been made public and the Nigerian government never reacted to the killings. In contrast, Ghana for years sought to learn the truth about the incident.”
“On May 16, 2018, Martin Kyere, the sole known Ghanaian survivor, and the families of the Ghanaian disappeared, called on the Ghanaian government to investigate the new evidence and potentially seek Jammeh’s extradition and prosecution in Ghana,” HRW said.
“They said that the migrants - including some 44 Ghanaians and as many as ten Nigerians - were arrested in July 2005 at a beach where they had landed, then transferred to the Gambian Naval Headquarters in Banjul, the capital,” HRW said.
They further alleged that, “They were detained there in the presence of the inspector general of police, the director general of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), the chief of the defence staff, and the commander of the National Guards.”
“At least two of them were in telephone contact with Jammeh during the operation. The head and several members of the paramilitary Junglers were also there,” HRW stated.