The exiled former Gambian President Yahya Jammeh may be prosecuted in Banjul following the approval of the leaders of the Economic Community of West African States to establish a hybrid court in Banjul, according to the country’s Minister of Justice and Attorney General Dawda A. Jallow.

The hybrid court will try gross human rights violations committed between July 1994, when Jammeh seized power in a military coup, and January 2017 when he fled after threats by sub-regional military forces when he refused to concede election defeat. The ECOWAS decision has given victims renewed hope.

This follows development since the Truth Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC) submitted its findings to the Barrow government, after hearing more than 870 days of covering gruesome details of human rights abuses from 392 witnesses including victims, perpetrators and experts.

Speaking at the government’s monthly town hall conference, where citizens face off with state ministers to enquire their concerns, he said: “We want to try perpetrators in The Gambia, but we have developed laws where some of the alleged perpetrators could be prosecuted elsewhere if their prosecution in the country threatens security concerns in the country.”

However, many others including victims and human rights activists have expressed concerns about the slow pace of the Barrow government to prosecute Jammeh-era human rights offenders’ despite being presented TRRC reports.

By Adama Makasuba