Hundreds of people have been kidnapped in Gambian witch hunts and taken to detention centers where they were forced to drink hallucinogenic concoctions, Amnesty International said yesterday.
Eyewitnesses and victims told the rights group that those involved in rounding up victims were “accompanied by police army and national intelligence agents,” the group said in a statement.
“They are also accompanied by ‘green boys’ — Gambian President Yahya Jammeh’s personal protection guard,” the statement said.
The group said up to 1,000 people had been kidnapped and that the hallucinogenic drinks had caused many to suffer serious kidney problems. At least two people were known to have died.
“I was picked up by these so-called witch-doctors on Thursday 12 March and detained for three days and later released ... We were forced to drink concoctions after which most of us hallucinated, urinated and defecated on ourselves,” one of the victims said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Amnesty called on the government to take immediate action and bring those responsible to justice.It said many villagers were fleeing the countryside for urban areas or Senegal to escape the round-ups.
The London-based rights group said the witch hunters, allegedly from Guinea, were invited into the country after the death of Jammeh’s aunt earlier this year for which he reportedly blamed witchcraft.
Amnesty said the recent arrest of Gambian opposition leader Halifa Sallah was also linked to the witch-hunts. Sallah had written about the round-ups for the opposition weekly Foroyaa.
He was arrested on March 8 after visiting a village in Gambia’s western region to speak to villagers about the kidnappings.
Jammeh has ruled Gambia since he grabbed power in a coup in 1994. It has one of the worst human rights records in West Africa.
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