“Jammeh2Justice” Concerned With Barrow’s Equatorial Guinea Visit Without Raising Jammeh’s Extradition Issue

By Buba Gagigo

“Jammeh2Justice” (J2J) campaign (victims of the Jammeh regime and Gambian and international activists)  raised concern that President Adama Barrow’s visited Equatorial Guinea without raising the issue of former president Yahya Jammeh’s Extradition.

“We are concerned that only days after the Minister of Justice stated flatly that ‘President Jammeh will face justice for the atrocities that he committed in this country’ President Barrow conducted a state visit to Equatorial Guinea and did not even raise the subject of Jammeh’s extradition,” J2J said in a statement. 

The J2J campaign acknowledged that President Obiang of Equatorial Guinea has expressed his willingness “protect” Jammeh; although his country ratified the UN Convention against Torture that legally requires the oil-rich state to extradite Jammeh for alleged torture, if Equatorial Guinea does not prosecute Jammeh.

The group also said The Gambia should take concrete steps for former President Jammeh and his accomplices to face justice.

“The group however salute the Gambian government for accepting the TRRC recommendations and its commitment to prosecute Jammeh and accomplices but urged the government to provide greater clarity and detail on the judicial framework it intends to create for those prosecutions.

“We welcome and salute the government’s acceptance of the TRRC’s recommendations and in particular its commitment to prosecute Jammeh and his accomplices. We had hoped that the government would provide greater clarity and detail on the judicial framework it intends to create for those prosecutions,” the statement said. 

The Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC) has held Jammeh responsible for a number of crimes including enforced disappearance, killing and torture of opposition members and journalists, the shooting of peaceful demonstrators, the murder of about 59 West African migrants, and ‘witch hunt campaigns’ in which hundreds of people were ‘arbitrarily’ detained and many died as a result. 

The commission also found that Jammeh raped and sexually assaulted women brought to him and, after announcing that he had invented a cure for AIDS, forced HIV-positive Gambians to give up their medicine and enroll in a sham treatment program under his personal care.

The ‘Jammeh2Justice’ campaign supported by a number of Gambian and international activists vowed not rest until Jammeh and his accomplices have been investigated with a view to prosecution, evidence permitting.

African Network against Extrajudicial Killings and Enforced Disappearances (ANEKED); Aids-Free World; Article 19 West Africa; Center for Justice and Accountability; Coalition for Change – The Gambia (CCG); EG Justice (Equatorial Guinea); La Fondation pour l’égalité des chances en Afrique; Gambia Center for Victims of Human Rights Violations; Guernica 37 Center; Human Rights Watch; International Commission of Jurists; Rose Lokissim Association;Solo Sandeng Foundation; TRIAL International; and Women’s Association for Victims’ Empowerment (WAVE) are supporting the campaign.