By Ebrima G. Sankareh, Editor-in-Chief

Yahya Jammeh & Ousman Sonko, Twins of Evil

Giving the brewing rumours and numerous speculations about President Yahya Jammeh’s supposed refusal to attend the African Union Summit in Accra, Ghana especially, the argument that it has more to do with 50 murdered West African immigrants (mostly Ghanaians), in July 2005, we at The Gambia Echo are compelled to republish our scoop on this case as reported in July, 2006 barely two months after the launching of this medium. Our source is a senior government official who is willing to provide withering indictments before any competent court of law as to the exact circumstances in which Yahya Jammeh’s executioners paraded these innocent souls in the farms of Siffoe village and hacked them to dead. For now though, once again, here is our lead story in pertinent part as narrated by our most competent source.  

"A group of 50 people; 46 Ghanaians, 2 Senegalese, 1 Ivorian and 1 Guinean were arrested in July 2005 by our immigration at the Senegalese border village of Amadalaye for illegally entering The Gambia.

Incidentally, there was an intelligence report that an attack on The Gambia was imminent and that seemed to have linked this wave of illegal immigrants to the tip off. These men were frantically transported to Barra, a coastal village on The Gambia's North Bank Division (seven sea miles off Banjul), where a team of The Gambia Navy picked them up and ferried them to the Naval Headquarters in Banjul.

Present at the Naval headquarters were Colonel Ndure Cham, then Chief of Defense Staff, his deputy CDS Lang Tombong Tamba, Major Ousman Sonko Gambia's Inspector General of Police, Mr. Gibriel Ngorr Secka of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) and Major Ousman Badjie, then Commander of the Presidential Guards.

Soon after they docked at the Naval Headquarters in Banjul, a group of masked, well-armed men descended on the scene and began to tie them individually like animals. While on action, now Lieutenant Kawsu Camara (alias "Bombarde"- thanks to his clownish shows of lethality) inadvertently dropped his mask and was recognized. It was then apparent that the much-feared Bombarde and his State House men were in action and nothing less than ominous was to be expected.

These so-called illegal immigrants were bound in ropes and electric cables and divided into two groups of 25 men each. One group was taken to Kombo Police Station and the other taken to a house in Kotu belonging to Baba Jobe (a UN indicted felon serving nine years at Gambia's Mile II Prisons), but under the custody of President Jammeh.

Subsequently, Bombarde and his masked men picked these immigrants from these locations in groups of eight and took them to a killing site in the farms of Siffoe village in Gambia's Western Division 50km off Banjul at Siffoe farms under the command of IGP Ousman Sonko (Sonko is now Interior Minister), CDS Ndure Cham, Major Ousman Badjie of the State House Guards and Captain Momodou Tumbul Tamba.

Cpt. Tamba, extreme left died two months ago 

The "CHIAKAS" (lethal killers) used machetes, axes, knives, sticks and sharp objects to kill them individually. The bodies were indiscriminately dumped at various locations among them Brufut, a coastal village close to Siffoe. As if by divine intervention, two of the immigrants (Ghanaians) escaped before their hacking and fled to Brufut. Once it was noticed that they were Ghanaians, they were directed to meet the head villager of Ghana Town. At Ghana Town the duo narrated their harrowing tales of escape from the Siffoe killing fields. The village headman was so nervous that he could not accommodate the desperate men only few kilometers from Bombarde and his men. Conscious of the consequences, the village headman called the Police Intervention Unit (PIU).

Within minutes, the PIU came, rearrested the duo in two pick up vehicles and headed to Kanifing in the suburbs of Serekunda, where they were detained and questioned. While in detention at Kanifing, the men narrated to some officers their ordeal and how some of their colleagues were brutally murdered with machetes and pick axes. One day, one of them managed to escape and ran into New Jeswang shouting for help. He was apprehended and together with the other Ghanaian taken to an unknown location and until now nothing is heard of them."

Editor’s Note: This then is the harrowing story about the 50 West African immigrants and only last week, our source has renewed the promise to come forward before any credible court of law to testify. I am also willing to testify based on my discussions with this government official.