Sole survivor of the Gambia Massacre testifies a truth panel

Dakar, March 1 (AFP/APP): The sole known survivor of a massacre of some 50 African migrants in The Gambia in 2005 broke down in tears on Monday as he testified before a truth panel in the country.

The massacre is one of the most notorious abuses which occurred under Yahya Jammeh, who reigned with an iron fist in the tiny West African state for 22 years. Jammeh fled the country in January 2017 after losing a presidential election to Adama Barrow, a relative unknown. The Gambia subsequently set up a Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC) to probe Jammeh-era rights violations.

It has heard testimony about torture, rape, death squads and state-sponsored witch hunts, among other alleged abuses, since hearings began in 2019. But last week, the commission began examining one of the most infamous episodes of Jammeh’s rule: the alleged execution of around 50 Europe-bound clandestine migrants who were taken for mercenaries in 2005.

Martin Kyere, testifying to the commission on Monday, described how soldiers “with cutlasses and guns” stripped and beat the migrants when they first captured them. The Ghanaian national was then held in a cell for about a week, before he and other migrants were bound with wire and driven deep into a forest.