The Gambia will use funds from the US forfeiture of long-time ruler Yahya Jammeh’s property to pay victims of his rule, authorities said.
The Gambia’s Reparations Commission said it received $2.5m (£1.86m) from the sale of a Maryland mansion owned by the former leader of the West African nation.
In 2022, the US secured the right to sell the property on the grounds that it was acquired through “criminal proceeds and misappropriated Gambian public funds”.
Jammeh ruled The Gambia for more than 20 years after taking over in a coup in 1994 – a time marked by allegations of human rights abuses forced disappearances and extrajudicial killings.
On Tuesday, the Gambia Reparations Commission said it was “pleased to inform victims, survivors and the public that it has received a total of $2,573,414.10” from the sale of Jammeh’s property.
It said it was committed to managing the funds responsibly and transparently, “with due regard to the rights and needs of victims and survivors”.
Jammeh lost to Adama Barrow in the 2016 election, first accepting defeat and then rejecting the results.
He eventually stepped down in 2017 amid intense regional and international pressure.
Troops from several West African nations, including Senegal, had been deployed to The Gambia, threatening to drive Jammeh out of office.
In the end, he agreed to step down and went into exile in Equatorial Guinea.
A national commission then found that the former president owned 281 properties in The Gambia, plus one in the US and one in Morocco, and controlled more than 100 bank accounts.
He could not have afforded this on his salary, and the commission concluded that he had misappropriated more than $300m.
Jammeh is accused of presiding over the murder of political opponents, disappearances, rape and torture.
A commission of inquiry found that widespread abuses had resulted in the death of “240-250 Gambians and non-Gambians at the hands of the state or its agents”.
Source: BBC
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