ECOWAS Establishes A Tribunal in The Gambia To Try Yahya Jammeh For His Crimes

The establishment of a special tribunal to try crimes committed in the Gambia during the military rule was agreed by the West African regional bloc ECOWAS on Sunday. At a regional heads of state summit in Abuja, the capital of Nigeria, the historic decision was declared. Alleged crimes perpetrated under military dictator Yahya Jammeh, whose leadership from 1996 to 2017 was characterized by extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detentions, and sexual assault, would be covered by the tribunal. After initially refusing to resign, Jammeh moved into exile in Equatorial Guinea a year after losing the 2016 presidential election.

For years, there have been increasing calls for justice for the victims of the dictatorship in the Gambia, a nation that is encircled by Senegal save for a small stretch of the Atlantic coast. A truth commission came to a conclusion in 2021.

A Swiss court condemned Jammeh’s former interior minister to 20 years of jail in May for these crimes against humanity. A Gambian named Bai Lowe was found guilty in November of murder and crimes against humanity by a German court for his involvement in the killing of Gambia’s government critics. The individual drove a military force that was fighting Jammeh’s rivals.

The ruling, according to a statement from the Gambian Ministry of Justice, is a “historic development” that “marks a significant step forward for The Gambia, the region, and the international community.”

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