Outrage in Gambia over claims former president ordered killings

BANJUL: Baba Hydara was in his car, listening to the radio, when he heard a former hitman of expresident Yahya Jammeh coldly describe how his dad was murdered. Baba’s father, Deyda Hydara, co-founder of The Point newspaper and AFP’s correspondent in The Gambia for 30 years, was revered among journalists in this small west African country. Baba Hydara, 42, has fought for years for his father’s murderers and those who ordered them to be brought to book.

Now the wall of silence around Jammeh’s 22year reign of fear is starting to crack, and information — if not yet justice - is starting to flow. The iron-fisted ruler, today aged 54, flew to Equatorial Guinea after being forced out in 2017 following an election defeat. His henchman are giving testimony to a Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC) tasked with shedding light on one of the grimmest episodes in West African history.

Like the post-apartheid truth commission in South Africa that it emulates, the panel is gripping the public with its graphic evidence. “It brought back memories, something we’ve been through like almost 15 years ago - it was very hard for the whole family,” Baba Hydara told AFP, describing his feelings as he listened to the testimony of one of the killers, Malick Jatta.

As a member of the “Junglers”, as Jammeh’s hit squad was called, Jatta admitted to being a member of a team that riddled Deyda Hydara with bullets on the evening of December 16, 2004. “How it was planned, how he explained it, it’s like they did their homework. They studied. They really did research on how and where to hit him... it was very premeditated,” Baba Hydara said.