Former Gambian president Yahya Jammeh ordered the massacre of about 30 migrants he said were “mercenaries” sent to topple him in 2005, a member of the former strongman’s hit squad told a truth commission on Tuesday.
The testimony came a day after another army officer accused Jammeh of ordering the murder of a leading journalist who worked for an independent newspaper and wrote articles about the corruption that marked Jammeh’s iron-fisted rule for 22 years.
Omar Jallow, a former officer in the Presidential Guard, said about 45 Europe-bound migrants comprising nationals from Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal and Togo were arrested on a beach while trying to get to Europe.
“Yahya Jammeh ordered for the execution of the foreign nationals,” believing they were mercenaries sent to topple him, Jallow said.
They were taken to a firing range and then the soldiers were told by their commanding officer, Lieutenant Solo Bojang, that the captives were to be killed.
“Solo said these people were mercenaries and he told us that the order from the former head of state [Jammeh] was to fire at them,” he said, adding that the bodies were thrown in a well.
“I was given 100 dollars by one of them who pleaded to me to allow him say his last prayers, but before he completely knelt down [another soldier] fired at him. I used the 100 dollars,” Jallow said.
Human Rights Watch said that the other migrants were also killed.
Jammeh seized power in a bloodless coup in 1994 in the former British colony.
His refusal to leave power after losing a presidential election in 2016 sparked a regional crisis in West Africa, which ended when Jammeh agreed to live in exile in Equatorial Guinea.
FRENCH AID: Paris has sent a navy ship and aircraft from Reunion Island with some pollution control equipment, but rough seas are spreading the oil spill The operator of a Japanese bulk carrier which ran aground off Mauritius in the Indian Ocean yesterday apologized for a major oil spill, which officials and environmentalists say is creating an ecological disaster, as police prepared to board the ship. The MV Wakashio, operated by Mitsui OSK Lines, struck the reef on Mauritius’ southeast coast on July 25. “We apologize profusely and deeply for the great trouble we have caused,” Mitsui OSK Lines executive vice president Akihiko Ono said at a news conference in Tokyo. The company would “do everything in their power to resolve the issue,” he said. At least 1,000 tonnes of
Three Micronesian sailors stranded on a remote Pacific island have been found alive and well after a rescue team spotted their giant SOS message written into the sand on a beach. Australian and US military aircraft found the three men on tiny Pikelot island, nearly 200km west of where they had set off. Rescuers said that the men were “in good condition” with no significant injuries. The men had been missing for three days after their 7m skiff ran out of fuel and strayed off course. Authorities in the US territory of Guam raised the alarm on Saturday after the men failed to complete
A cat that went missing on a family holiday on the shores of Loch Lomond, Scotland, has been identified 12 years later. Tortoiseshell-and-white Georgie spent October half term in 2008 with her owners at the Rowardennan campsite, but vanished as they were due to return home to Greater Manchester, England. After a search of the site the Davies family departed without Georgie, hoping the three-year-old microchipped feline would be located by someone. Over the intervening 12 years, she remained close to the Queen Elizabeth Forest Park site, being fed and cared for by campsite staff and holidaymakers. After the COVID-19 pandemic hit and lockdown
LIFELONG LOSS: Jiro Hamasumi, who was not quite born when an atomic bomb hit Hiroshima, lost his father and other relatives, but said he thinks about his father daily As Japan marks 75 years since the devastating attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the last generation of nuclear bomb survivors is working to ensure their message lives on after them. The “hibakusha” — literally “person affected by the bomb” — have for decades been a powerful voice calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons. There are an estimated 136,700 left, many of whom were infants or soon to be born at the time of the attacks. The average age of a survivor now is a little over 83, according to the Japanese Ministry of Health, lending an urgency as they share their testimonies
RSS