Payment of reparations to Yahya Jammeh’s victims begins

Relief for Human Rights violation victims in The Gambia is in view as the Government of the West Africa nation has announced commencement of payment of reparations to victims of human rights violations committed during the period July 1994 to January 2017.

A statement issued by The Gambia Reparations Commission last week Monday January 12, 2026 in Banjul said that payments to eligible victims have commenced.

The Reparations Commission, headed by Dr. Badara Toum said payments were being disbursed in phases beginning with victims who suffered violations in 1994. It said subsequent payments would follow by year of violation to ensure fairness, transparency, and effective verification.

According to the statement, the Commission was actively contacting eligible victims and groups to verify information for the disbursement. The Chairperson of the Reparations Commission, Dr. Badara Loum, described the development as a historic milestone for victims who had endured decades of pain, loss, and neglect.

The Gambia Truth Reconciliation and Reparation Commission (TRRC), after a comprehensive review of its thematic areas of operation, submitted recommendations for consideration by the government in July 2021. It had recommended, among others, the payment of equivalent of US$612,000 to 54 victims who were unlawfully imprisoned, killed or forced to disappear.

The recommendations were based on the conviction of the TRRC on the need for accountability and importance of bringing to justice those who bore responsibility for their crimes committed against West African migrants on the shores of The Gambia on July 22, 2005.

The TRRC found the former President of The Gambia, Yahya Jammeh and13 others criminally liable for the massacre of 44 Ghanaians in The Gambia in 2005.

The Commission concluded that Yahya Jammeh was responsible for the killings, enforced disappearances and torture of more than 67 West African economic migrants by giving direct orders to his soldiers to execute them in 2005.

The TRRC also recommended their prosecution as well as the setting up of a Joint Forensic Investigation team based in The Gambia to locate, exhume and conserve the remains of the victims.

The Government of The Gambia, headed by H. E. Adama Barrow accepted the recommendations by the TRRC, which investigated human rights violations and the massacre of over 44 Ghanaians in The Gambia.

A 173-page White paper released on May 25, 2022 stated the position of the Gambian government in accepting the recommendations. The government totally accepted the recommendations by the TRRC to ensure the prosecution of Yahya Jammeh and his 13 accomplices including  Ousman Sonko, Solo Bojang, Malick Jatta (Alfidie), Sanna Manjang, Kawsu Camara (Bombardier), Tumbul Tamba, Bai Lowe, Nuha Badjie, Landing Tamba, Alieu Jeng  Omar .A. Jallow (Oya), Buboucarr Jallow and Lamin Sillah.

Yankuba Sonko and Malamin Ceesay were banned from holding public office with the Gambia government for ten years for their roles in covering up of the killings of the West African migrants.

It also accepted the recommendation of the Commission to pay the sum of D32,400,000 the equivalent of US$612,000 to the West African Migrants and other non-Gambian nationals, which money is to be paid to the respective governments of the migrants’ countries who are then expected to make the payments to the victims’ families and survivors.

The Government also accepted the recommendation of the Commission to work closely with partners to ensure adequate resources and expertise are made available for the search and identification of burial sites, exhumations, and identification of remains to be given to their families for befitting burial.

President Barrow’s administration has also accepted the recommendation of the Commission to work with the survivors and governments, through the independent reparations body to be created and hoped the Recommendations by the TRRC would serve as a key lesson to other governments in the West African sub-region to have deep respect for the lives of marginalized people.

Meanwhile, the Executive Director, Africa Centre for International Law and Accountability (ACILA) and Coordinator, Jammeh2Justice Ghana Campaign, Mr. William Nyarko, has noted that the commencement of payment by the Reparations Commission was a significant step towards achieving reparations for victims and their families, though in part after almost three decades of waiting.

He hoped that the other aspects of the reparations – bringing Yahya Jammeh and his co-conspirators to trial – would be affected soon. Mr. Nyarko said theJammeh2Justice Ghana Campaign would continue to engage with the victims’ families in Ghana to ensure they submit the required documentation to the Reparations Commission to effect payment.

 

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