Victims of human rights abuses during the Jammeh dictatorship have called on state authorities to fast track exhumation of slain soldiers in 1994.

The group’s call comes as they marked 26th anniversary of the extrajudicial killings of a group of mutinying soldiers on November 10/11 in 1994. The soldiers were accused of staging a coup against the Armed Forces Provisional Ruling Council led by former Gambian strongman Yahya A.J.J Jammeh.

Last year, the nation’s truth commission exhumed bodies of some of the slain soldiers at Yundum military barracks.

“Another important thing on this commemoration is to call on the Government through Ministry of Justice and other relevant Stakeholders such as TRRC to speed up their actions in identifying the exhumed bodies of the fallen soldiers who were improperly buried at the Yundum Barrack so that they can be received by their families for befitting burial.

“We want thank the ongoing Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations commission, United Nation Development Programme and other International partners for their unflinching support in providing redress for the victims and deter from the recurrence of future human rights violations and abuses in The Gambia,” the statement from the Gambia Victims of Human Rights Violations said.

Reporting by Adama Makasuba