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Families of Jammeh victims in Gambia demand 'truth'

17.04.2018 LISTEN
By AFP

Families of the victims of ex-Gambia president Yahya Jammeh's regime demonstrated on Tuesday to demand the "truth" about their deaths and disappearances.

They accuse Jammeh, who ruled the West African country for 22 years, of rampant corruption and human rights abuses including forced disappearances and extrajudicial executions.

"We want justice now," around 30 protesters shouted as they marched in Banjul, an AFP journalist said.

Last year, authorities announced that the remains of Gambians killed while fighting for the end of the Jammeh regime had been exhumed.

"A year later, families and friends have no information about the whereabouts or fate of the deceased," said Zainab Lowe, sister of a member of the presidential guard who disappeared in 2006.

"This time the waiting is over. The truth must be told and we need justice," she added, on behalf of the families of the victims.

Jammeh was defeated by Adam Barrow in a December 2016 presidential election, a result which he fought for weeks until the threat of a regional military intervention.

He is currently in exile in Equatorial Guinea.

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