Modou Ngum, a victim of the Jammeh dictatorship, has told the TRRC that he used to drink his blood while in detention at the notoriously brutal National Intelligent Agency.

Mr Ngum was among scores of people who took to the street in April 2016 to protest against former President Yahya Jammeh’s autocratic rule and demanded an electoral reform. 

The rare anti-Jammeh demonstration was clamped down with brutal force and the protesters were taken to the NIA for interrogation. 

“They [NIA] beat me, they destroy the whole of my body. And I used to drink my blood,” Mr Ngum said.

He said he drank his blood “because I was thirsty and I didn’t have water to drink. So, the blood [that was] oozing from my wrist was the one I was drinking.”

He said he informed the NIA agents that he was thirsty but that they refused to give him water to drink.

Meanwhile, Mr Ngum said he and the slain politician Solo Sandeng phones were tapped by personnel of the National Intelligent Agency days ahead of their demonstration.

“He [Solo Sandeng] told me to find a vehicle and he told me the cost of it shouldn’t exceed 1,500 dalasi. 

“Solo called me in the night but unfortunately the NIA tapped Solo’s phone and they tapped my phone too. 

“And all I had discussed with Solo ‘Oh my God the NIA’s had listened to all our conversations’.”

He said he was informed of the tapping of their cell phones at the headquarters of the National Intelligent Agency.

Mr Ngum said the demonstration was agreed upon by supporters of the United Democratic Party, Gambia Moral Congress and National Reconciliation Party

He said while Solo and the other activists  were having their meeting at the bureau of the National Reconciliation Party that some NIA officers were among them acting as if they were supporters of the United Democratic Party.

Reporting by Adama Makasuba