Exiled Gambian dictator Yahya Jammeh affirms his intention to take over the leadership of his party and “come back”, in an audio message consulted Thursday by AFP.
Mr. Jammeh ruled with an iron fist from 1994 to 2017 this small West African country landlocked in Senegal with the exception of its maritime facade. He has lived in Equatorial Guinea since his forced departure in January 2017 under pressure from West African states following his defeat in the presidential election against Adama Barrow, re-elected at the end of 2021.
Mr. Jammeh continues to influence political life in The Gambia.
“I decided today to take back the leadership of my party and no longer entrust it to anyone,” he said in this message intended for his supporters in the Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction (APCR), which he founded in 1996.
“Whether I like it or not, by the grace of Allah, I am coming back,” he adds without explaining his point regarding a return to political life, which he has not really left, or to his country.
The Community of West African States ECOWAS lent its support in December to the creation of a special court responsible for judging crimes committed under its regime. Mr. Jammeh could be the main defendant before this court.
-The Gambian government in 2022 endorsed the recommendations of a commission that looked into the atrocities of the Jammeh era, and agreed to prosecute 70 people, starting with Mr. Jammeh.
“Let those who threaten to put me in prison waiting for me to arrive. The day of accountability is approaching, and on that day, we will settle the accounts,” Mr. Jammeh said.
The Gambia, a former British colony of two million inhabitants and the smallest continental state in Africa, is among the 20 least developed countries in the world, according to the United Nations.
AFP
