Ensa Mendy, a soldier of the Gambia Armed Forces, has told the Gambia’s Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC) on Thursday that his former boss was involved in the extrajudicial killings of the November 11 mutineers and the former finance minister, Koro Ceesay.

Ensa Mendy, who enlisted in the army in 1990, said he was an orderly to Lieutenant Yankuba Touray, the then Secretary of State of Local Government and Lands during the AFPRC regime.

Mendy, recounting events of the failed November 11, 1994 coup, said he escorted Lt Yankuba Touray to the State House for an emergency meeting of the AFPRC junta. He said at the State House one Almamo Manneh, a State Guard, briefed him and other orderlies  of the planned coup against the junta and that they were been deployed to foil the coup and arrest the plotters. He said he joined a group of about 30 soldiers commanded by the members of the then AFPRC ruling junta.

He said the junta members in the group were Lieutenant Sanna Sabally, Lieutenant Yankuba Touray, Lieutenant Sadibou Hydara, Lieutenant Edward Singhateh and Lieutenant Peter Singhateh.

Mendy said the group of soldiers attacked and seized control of  Yundum Barracks, the alleged centre of the mutineers, without any resistance from the soldiers.

He explained that they entered the barracks through the back gate and the startled guards deserted their posts leaving their guns behind. Others who were having their dinner fled too.

“We occupied the camp without any resistance. We took charge of the guard room. At around 1 am of the 11^th of November 1994, Lieutenant Basiru Barrow entered the barracks in a pick-up truck. At the gate the truck was stopped by Corporal Malafi Corr and his men. Corr was a Military Police and started his command with the military code: Ahuwa!

“Lieutenant Basirou Barrow replied: Ahuwa. Let us go and fuck those bastards.

“This was the time Corr and his men arrested Barrow, stripped and removed all the jujus he wore. Yankuba Touray rushed towards Barrow but he didn’t make it and passed out. Some said it was due to the power of Basiru Barrow’s juju.  Then Lieutenant Sanna Sabally ordered that Barrow be taken to the cell.

“The soldiers were scrambling (sic) to get Lieutenant Barrow at the time they were removing his jujus on his body. He was beaten mercilessly and taken to the cells.

“Other soldiers arrested at the Yundum Barracks included ‘Dot’ Faal. He (‘Dot’ Faal) was also beaten mercilessly. He did not enter barracks because he was apprehended at the sentry gate. 

“We (the orderlies) collectively beat ‘Dot’ Faal mercilessly. Then after some hours, Lieutenant Sanna Sabally ordered for them to go to the Fajara Barracks.

“Sabally was the Senior Council Member and leader. At the Fajara Barracks, we met a stiff resistance from those at the barracks at the time.

“They were firing at us and we fired back. We asked the junior soldiers to join us and they joined. The senior non-commissioned officers were arrested. Sanna Sabally paraded them at the football field of the barracks and ordered that we shoot the captured soldiers.

“We responded by shooting them. Two soldiers fell down and the rest continued running. All the Council members fired their shots along with us. We left the bodies of the fallen soldiers at the field.”

Mendy said after the firing, Sanna Sabally led them to Yundum Barracks. He explained that Sergeant Fafa Nyang was brought out by Corporal Alagie Kanyi and Lance Corporal Baboucar Ndour.

“Fafa Nyang swore that he was not part of the coup plot but Sanna Sabally ordered for him to be taken away and shot. Fafa was shot in the stomach and his intestines were out and it was this time that Lamin Colley shot him on his head.” 

Mendy said that Lamin Colley’s shot was not an accidental shot “because a well-trained military officer knows that each gun has a safety-catch. The statement of an accidental discharge made by Lamin Colley was false.

“Dot Faal’s body was on the truck. Sana ordered that the bodies be buried. I was not involved in the burial.  

“Fafa Nyang was my immediate boss. He was my Section Commander at the Farafenni Army Training School. I cried after he was killed.”   

He said all the soldiers who foiled the coup left for the State House to celebrate their success. They were served drinks and celebrated  foiling the attempted coup.   

Mendy denied taking part in the execution of soldiers and officers at the firing range around the Nyambai Forest, stating that the allegation that he participated was not true. “From Yankuba Touray’s house, I went home. I didn’t participate in any execution.”  

The Murder of Koro Ceesay

Mendy said the murder of Koro Ceesay, the former Secretary of State for Finance during the AFPRC regime, happened the same day the Chairman of the AFPRC Yahya AJJ Jammeh was leaving for the AU-Summit.

He said after Chairman Jammeh left, Lieutenant Yankuba Touray asked him to use his personal car with his driver to go home while he joined the vehicle of one of the Council members to go home. “This was not usual,” Mendy said.

Mendy said that later Yankuba Touray called him to go to the beachside to apprehend a canoe that was coming. He said he went with a group of five and they were all armed and in military uniform. He added that Yankuba Touray called them to come back and when they returned to his house they found the house dirtied with mud and saw his (Yankuba Touray) uniform burnt and covered in mud. He said later he heard that Koro Ceesay was murdered.

“I suspected that Yankuba Touray participated in the murder of Koro Ceesay because it happened in his house.”  

The TRRC sitting continues