'I'm coming back' — Gambian exiled former dictator Yahya Jammeh tells supporters

The Gambia's former dictator Yahya Jammeh has said he intends to take back control of his political party and declared he is "coming back", in an audio message obtained by AFP on Thursday.

He ruled the tiny west African nation for 22 years, presiding over a regime accused of carrying out torture, using death squads and many other abuses.

Jammeh has been in exile in Equatorial Guinea since 2017 when he lost an election to current President Adama Barrow, but he still has many supporters in his home country and often weighs in on its politics.

"Today, I have decided to take over my party myself and will not entrust it to anyone again," Jammeh said in an audio message sent to his supporters from the Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction (APRC) on Wednesday.

"Whether anybody likes it or not, by the grace of Allah, I am coming back."

Jammeh's announcement came a month after regional bloc ECOWAS backed the creation of a special hybrid court to judge crimes committed during his rule.

The Gambian government in 2022 endorsed the recommendations of a commission that looked into atrocities perpetrated under Jammeh, with authorities agreeing to prosecute 70 people including the former president, who came to power following a 1994 coup.

"Let those threatening me with jail wait until I arrive. A day of accountability is coming and it will be a day of reckoning," the ex-dictator said.

Jammeh founded the APRC in 1996 and the party still holds significant influence in The Gambia.

Current president Barrow won a second term in 2021 after his party announced a pact with the APRC, which many viewed as a ploy to court Jammeh supporters.

An English-speaking nation of two million people that is continental Africa's smallest country, The Gambia is among the world's 20 least developed states, according to the United Nations.