Banjul, Gambia – The Gambia on Tuesday reiterated its commitment to arrest and prosecute exiled former dictator Yahya Jammeh should he return to the West African nation, after the brutal ex-leader told followers he planned to come back next month.
Jammeh’s two decades in power from 1994 to 2017 were marked by significant rights abuses and the earmarking of state funds for the eccentric leader’s personal use, the current government and rights groups say.
“If and when Mr. Jammeh returns, robust legal processes will be activated,” the Gambian Ministry of Information said in a statement.
“This will include investigation, arrest, and prosecution, with a guarantee of due process, fair trial standards, and respect for the rights of all involved,” it said.
On Sunday, Jammeh supporters gathered at his hometown of Kanilai. where an audio message was played in which he said he would return in November.
Jammeh now lives in Equatorial Guinea, after he was forced out under pressure from regional neighbours following his 2016 election loss to Adama Barrow, who was re-elected in 2021.
The right to return home “does not shield any person from accountability for serious alleged crimes”, the ministry said in its statement.
Those include crimes established by the country’s Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC), which probed alleged offences committed during the Jammeh era, it said.
It additionally reiterated that recent claims about “a memorandum of understanding or any promise of immunity for the former president” were false.
“No such agreement exists,” it said.
The Gambian government in 2022 committed to implementing recommendations made by the TRCC, which found that 240 to 250 people were killed by the state during Jammeh’s rule.
It also found evidence of widespread extrajudicial killings, torture, enforced disappearances, witch hunts and other human rights abuses.
Barrow’s government said it would prosecute 70 people named in the TRRC report, including Jammeh.
There is no extradition treaty between Equatorial Guinea and The Gambia, where Jammeh still exerts influence.
While the region has faced a series of military coups since 2020, The Gambia has undergone a re-establishment of democracy.
The former British colony of two million people is among the 20 least developed countries in the world, according to the United Nations.
© Agence France-Presse
