Kaddy Camara, widow of the late Alhajie Mamadi Sabally, a former member of parliament, has claimed that her husband was castrated at the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) during his detention by the AFPRC junta.

Ms Camara, the first female witness before the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC), said her husband was arrested due to his close ties with Saikou Sabally, the former vice president during the Jawara regime.

She said her husband revealed his painful torture and castration at the NIA after summoning his three wives for a family meeting. She said her husband begged their forgiveness and told them that the torture at the NIA had made him impotent.   

Ms Camara told the commission that her husband mentioned Daba Marena, FRI Jammeh and others as the ones who were beating him all over his body including his genital.

She explained that before beating him, the torturers usually tied his toes and his neck together and they would start beating him to get the information they wanted from him.

She said her husband was seriously ill after his release. He suffered from diabetic, shortness of breath and body pain.

Recalling Alhajie Mammady Sabally’s maltreatment by the AFPRC Junta, Ms Camara said her husband’s trouble started when he travelled to Mauritanian in 1995 and the police visited his house looking for him. 

“We called Saihou Sabally, the then vice-president in Dakar, to inform him of the police visit. We pleaded with Sabally to advise our husband not to return to The Gambia for a while.”  

Ms Camara said her husband didn’t heed the advice and told them that “I will sleep in Dakar today but tomorrow, I will sleep in Jarra Soma.” She said her husband was arrested on his return to Farafenni.

She said her daughter, Joko Sabally, who was a resident of Farafenni called to inform them that her husband had been arrested and taken to the Police Headquarters in Banjul.

Ms Camara said her husband later called to tell the family about the harsh conditions of his detention and that he preferred death to the degrading and inhumane treatment he was being subjected to. 

She said after that call the family didn’t hear from him for a long time. She added that her husband was then held incommunicado and they didn’t know where he was detained.  She explained that after several months of frantic search they were told that he was been detained at Fajara Barracks by a former detainee, Masanneh Ceesay, Her husband, she continued, was released after spending more than a year in detention.

Ms Camara said they later found out that her husband was arrested because he was alleged to have collected the house rent of Saikou Sabally and took it to him in Dakar.

She said that the news of her husband first release got to the family, but the decision was rescinded and her husband was rearrested and taken to Jeshwang Prison by the then Inspector General of Police, F.R.I. Jammeh.

She disclosed that when her husband was released he was taken to Saikou Sabally’s compound at Tobacco Road in Banjul.

“He was unable to walk for almost one month and it took a week before he’d talk to us. My husband was received by his two sons; Pa and Omar Sabally at Jarra Soma’s bus stop where he was assisted to get to the house.

“He was experiencing pain all over his body as he had swollen legs and he couldn’t speak for a while.

“We had to prepare mannakasso ( herbal medicine) for him to drink which helped his husband greatly and he started urinating black substance and after sometime he began to walk.

Ms Camara revealed that her husband told them to be constantly checking on him especially in the night because he was in constant pain. She said that her husband died a year after he was released from detention.

The witness told the Commission that the family had a bitter experience as they were completely isolated by the community as they were considered as opposition.

She said that it was difficulty in sending their children to school, difficulty in feeding the large family and in most cases their electricity and water were cut.

She said the family had a tough ordeal with the then chief of Jarra Soma, Yaya Jarjusey, and the officials of the Mansakonko Area Council.