The Gambia under Yahya Jammeh (1994-2017)
Yahya Jammeh came to power in The Gambia following a 1994 coup that ousted Dawda Jawara, who had been President since the country’s independence from the United Kingdom in 1970. From 1994 until his forced departure after losing the 2016 elections, Jammeh and his authoritarian regime committed widespread human rights violations, including enforced disappearances, torture, extrajudicial killing, sexual violence, and arbitrary detention. At the same time, Jammeh’s government passed legislation to suppress dissent and discourage victims of human rights violations from seeking redress.
Under Jammeh’s rule, Gambian authorities systematically targeted “journalists, human rights defenders, student leaders, religious leaders, political opposition members, judiciary officials, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people, and security force personnel.” The administration’s targeting of journalists and anyone deemed critical of the government – including the killing of 14 protestors in April 2000, the killing of journalist Deyda Hydara in 2004, the enforced disappearance of journalist Ebrima Manneh in 2006, and the torture of journalist Musa Saidykhan in 2006 – is well documented.
One of the most brutal enforcers of Jammeh’s regime was the Junglers (also known as “Jungullars” or “Black Blacks”), a paramilitary division of the presidential guard that reported directly to Jammeh. In 2015, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture found evidence that the Junglers operated outside the formal purview of law enforcement and carried out the regime’s most repressive abuses: arbitrary detention, torture, enforced disappearance, and extrajudicial killing. Torture, in particular, was routine and prevalent, and the methods reportedly employed included the use of hammers, machetes, pliers, and needles, as well as injections into victims’ bodies. In the aftermath of a failed coup in 2006 – the sixth attempted coup since the start of Jammeh’s rule – the regime announced that it would crush plotters “without mercy” to “set an example.” Junglers tortured suspected participants for “confessions”. Following another attempted coup in 2014, dozens of Gambians were tortured and forcibly disappeared.
In 2016, Adama Barrow – the consensus candidate of a coalition of seven opposition political parties – defeated Jammeh in what was deemed a peaceful and credible presidential election. After a six-week constitutional crisis and political impasse in which Jammeh refused to concede, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) authorized a military intervention on January 17, 2017, with the support of forces from several West African nations. Jammeh finally departed for Guinea and then Equatorial Guinea on January 21, 2017, after ECOWAS-authorized Senegalese troops entered The Gambia to support the democratic transition of the country.
Justice and accountability in post-Jammeh Gambia
In December 2017, President Barrow’s government launched the Truth, Reconciliation, and Reparations Commission (TRRC) to reckon with Jammeh’s horrific legacy. The TRRC’s mandate was to “investigate and establish an impartial historical record of the nature, causes, and extent of violations and abuses of human rights” committed under Jammeh’s regime.
In 2019, the TRRC began broadcasting public hearings on national radio, which captured the nation’s attention. The hearings revealed the systematic and widespread nature of the regime’s abuses, which involved every state apparatus. Former members of the Junglers publicly testified about the crimes they committed under Jammeh’s orders. The progress of the TRRC was documented by the African Network against Extrajudicial Killings and Enforced Disappearances (ANEKED), which published regular monitoring reports.
While the TRRC was empowered to order reparations for victims and to grant amnesties to certain categories of perpetrators in exchange for their truthful testimony, it did not have the power to undertake criminal prosecutions. Because The Gambia was not yet ready to prosecute former Junglers; indeed, four were released after testifying before the TRRC.
At the end of 2021, the TRRC concluded its work and published its report, issuing 265 recommendations, including recommendations for further investigation and prosecution of Jammeh and 69 of his alleged associates. Six months later, the Gambian Ministry of Justice issued a white paper and timeline for the implementation of the TRRC recommendations. The Gambian government also began the process of establishing an internationalized tribunal—the Special Tribunal for Gambia—to ensure justice for gross human rights violations committed during the Jammeh regime. In April 2024, the Gambian National Assembly passed legislation to begin establishing the institutional framework for the Special Tribunal and the Special Prosecutor’s Office, which will be responsible for the investigations and prosecutions and in December 2024, the Economic Community of West African States voted to support the Tribunal.
In the meantime, Gambian human rights groups, such as the Gambia Center for Victims of Human Rights Violations, have advocated for members of the Jammeh regime to be prosecuted wherever they are found. So far there have been three prosecutions outside the Gambia for Jammeh era crimes. In 2023, Bai Lowe, a former Jungler was found guilty of two murders and an attempted murder constituting crimes against humanity. He was sentenced to life in prison. On May 15, 2024, Ousman Sonko, the former Minister of the Interior, was convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison for crimes against humanity in Switzerland. Most recently, in August 2025, Michael Sang Correa, a former Jungler, was sentenced to 67.5 years in prison after being convicted of five counts of torture, and one count conspiracy to commit torture by a United States jury. Learn more about the Correa case here.
Key Dates:
- July 1994: Coup d’état ousts President Dawda Jawara; Yahya Jammeh becomes the Chairman of the Armed Forces Provisional Ruling Council and declares himself Head of State
- November 1996: Jammeh is elected President.
- March 2006: Coup plot against Jammeh is discovered and aborted; Junglers engage in mass arrest and torture of alleged coup participants, seeking forced confessions.
- December 2014: Another attempted coup failed; dozens of individuals are detained, forcibly disappeared, and tortured.
- December 2016 to January 2017: Jammeh loses election to Adama Barrow, who leads a coalition of seven opposition parties. Jammeh initially refuses to concede the election, but flees the country following an intervention by ECOWAS. President Barrow is inaugurated in Senegal in January 2017 and takes office following an agreement on Jammeh’s exile.
- January 2017: Jammeh departs for Guinea and then Equatorial Guinea
- December 2017: Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC) launches.
- December 2021: TRRC report published
- April 2024: Special Accountability Mechanism bill passed by Gambian National Assembly.
- December 2024: ECOWAS votes to support Special Tribunal for Gambia.