Pa Ousman Sanneh, a Warrant Officer Class 1 in the army, is a Jungler who has served as a member of a hit-squad allegedly operating on the orders of former President Yahya Jammeh.
Sanneh has confessed to participating in the execution of 5 people including Baba Jobe, a one-time ally of Jammeh who is credited for forming the Green Youth, a civilian vigilante that was terrorizing Jammeh’s perceived enemies during the early days of the 1994 coup.
He told the Truth Commission on Wednesday that their orders to kill come from General Sulayman Badgie who directly answers to Yahya Jammeh.
“In our line of work, orders come from the top. Nobody will get up and kill someone… Our orders come from General Badgie to Nuha Badgie. And I know General Badgie gets his orders from Yahya Jammeh… That is how it happened… We have no powers to kill anyone. We operate on orders,” said Sanneh.
Sanneh is one of the 6 hit-men who have so far testified to over 50 executions under Jammeh. Five of the 6 are in state custody. The 3 who were praised to have cooperated well with the Commission, Omar Jallow, Malick Jatta and Amadou Badgie, were recommended for release by Justice Minister Abubacarr Tambadou.
It is unclear what will happen to the rest.
“It has never been our intention to kill… We are asking for forgiveness from Gambians and all the relatives of the loved ones we have killed,” said Sanneh.
Sanneh said he was a regular soldier until 2013 when he was recruited as a Jungler.
Junglers were soldiers who were randomly recruited from the army and trained by a fraudster Francisco Cacaso, an Italian national who later fled the country after he was made.
The group is composed of at least 3 teams with different names, The Patrol Team, Black Black, Junglers, loosely controlled at different times by Solo Bojang, Nuha Badgie, Sanna Manjang, Musa Jammeh, Bora Colley, among others.
Whether or not you are involved in a mission, you don’t ask questions. “The motto of the Junglers is “need to know basis”… A mission you are not involved in, you don’t ask,” said Sanneh.
Sanneh has also confessed to at least 2 tortures in the custody of the National Intelligence Agency.
Comments are closed.