The Gambia government has unveiled a 50 million dalasi reparation fund for the victims of former president Yahya Jammeh.

The minister of Justice, Abubacarr Tambadou, made the announcement at a press conference on Monday.

Mr. Tambadou said the financial sources for the reparation fund are from sales of assets of the former president Yahya Jammeh, who is exiled in Equatorial Guinea.

“The government deemed it just that reparations for Jammeh’s victims should be taken directly from his wealth and assets,” the Justice minister said.

Mr. Tambadou called for more donations to the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission Victims’ Trust Fund.

He said all victims are expected to claim from the reparation fund for injuries and human rights abuses they suffered during the 22-year rule of former president Yahya Jammeh.

Dr Lamin Sise, chairman of the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission, described the amount of money as “a splendid contribution by the government to the reparations Fund established by the TRRC”, adding that “it is a very good gesture in the healing, reconciliation and hopefully in the delivering of justice (to the victims).

“The victims deserve this kind of support as they are the ones who really suffered enormously in the 22-years of dictatorship and tyranny.”

Sheriff Kijera, chairman of the Victims Centre commended the government for fulfilling its promise to compensate the victims of human rights violations in the country. He called on the private sector to extend its helping hand to the victims.

A Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission was set up in 2017 by the Barrow government to investigate alleged human rights abuses of the AFPRC military junta and the APRC government respectively.

Victims as well as perpetrators have recounted harrowing accounts of extrajudicial killings, torture and other gross human rights violations perpetrated by the former president and his accomplices.

Reporting by Adama Makasuba