The Ghanaian sole survivor, of the 2005 massacre of West African migrants by paramilitary soldiers the Junglers, says he wants to see former president Yahya Jammeh and his associates face justice for their crimes.

Martin Kyere, 41, made the statement on the second day of his testimony to the Gambia’s Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission. 

The Commission was established in 2017 to investigate human rights violations and crimes that occurred during the 22 year Jammeh dictatorship (July 1994 – Dec 2016). 

Mr Kyere yesterday narrated how he escaped from a vehicle in a forest after managing to untie his hands as other captured migrants were brutally killed. 

He said he wandered through the bush half-naked to Casamance where villagers helped him reach Senegalese soldiers  who facilitated his trip to Dakar to tell the world of the most gruesome human rights crime ever perpetrated in The Gambia. 

“We have stages of justice – others think about having the death bodies be taken to Ghana and be given a befitting burial – others think about seeing the perpetrators including Yahya Jammeh being appear before a competent court,” Mr Kyere told the TRRC.

He expressed appreciation to the Commission for allowing him to testify and tell the story about the massacre in 2005, adding he never believed that a day will come “for him to come to the Gambia comfortably to give testimony.

“So, I hope today those back home will say a day will come, we will see justice and we hope never again – especially in West Africa [it] will be a place whereby we can move up and down [without any harm].

Reporting by Adama Makasuba