“Our Aim Was; Arrest Jammeh, Exhume Yundum Mass Graves & Hand Over to Civilian Gov’t.”

--A Sir Jackal Exclusive

 

By Ebrima G. Sankareh, Editor-In-Chief

 

Alhagie Cham Joof (Sir Jackal): ''I am still a soldier, I run 6 miles a day and exercise regularly."

Thirteen years after the bloody events of November 1994 and ten years since the Kartong military attack in July 1997, The Gambia’s most wanted, most elusive and phenomenally intrepid soldier, Sergeant Alhagie Cham Joof (a.k.a Sir Jackal;)has spoken to The Gambia Echo in an exclusive five-hour telephone conversation from his den in Germany. “Mr. Sankareh, I was a regular listener to the BBC’s Focus on Africa Programme and I followed every report you filed with the network both before and after the July, 1994. I also read your news reports on the local papers and was really impressed with your style of unbiased and balanced reporting. It is such confidence that really motivated me to call your office to break my silence; quite frankly you are the first journalist I have granted an interview and I want to clear the air now.” So began Sergeant Alhagie Cham Joof (Sir Jackal) and in the five hours that followed, he discussed everything regarding his encounter with Yahya Jammeh’s junta way before the 1994 bloody events that led to his first flight to freedom. Below we reproduce our conversation:

 

ECHO: Who is Alagie-Cham Joof?

JOOF: I am a very ordinary Gambian, with very modest upbringing; born at Ballanghar in 1965. I enrolled in The Gambia National Army (GNA) in February, 1986 in the GNA’s 6^th. Intake. I graduated with people like Lt. Col. Samsudeen Sarr, Major Bojang, Agriculture Secretary Yankuba Touray and Captain Modou Sonko. While Sarr and Bojang were in the 5^th Intake, we had a joint-graduation ceremony, a very colourful parade that I will remember for the rest of my life.

ECHO: Who is or why Sir Jackal?

JOOF: (Continuous laughter and then composes himself). My colleagues in the GNA nicknamed me Sir Jackal during our infantry and drill training sessions in the field.

ECHO: Any significance, why would your colleagues just nickname you Sir Jackal-out of the ordinary, how important?

JOOF: I think they just wanted to be funny because the military shoes we used for our training were very boring, very difficult and uncomfortable to wear especially, in the trenches and since I was able to maneuver with the Sir Jackal boots with relative ease and continued to wear them the rest of the night, my squad mates were amazed and hence the nickname Sir Jackal.

ECHO: However, by coincidence, you know Jackal in most Gambian languages mean surprise, wonder, amazement- is it not possible, that you may have exhibited some strange attributes that really, merited you the name Sir Jackal?

JOOF: (Laughter). As far as I know, birds fly because they have wings. Humans have a very powerful brain, legs and hands but no wings and cannot therefore, fly. I am often surprise when Gambians say that Sir Jackal flies. No, Sir Jackal does not have wings; he has a brain and military skills and when in tough situations, I put the two to work.

ECHO: Fair enough, now November 1994, so many soldiers died and until now Gambians don’t really know the exact number of your colleagues executed by the Armed Forces Provisional Ruling Council (AFPRC) led by now President Yahya Jammeh. What do you know about bloody November as it is now called?

JOOF: Before I comment on the events of November 1994, please excuse me to tell you my personal experiences with Yahya Jammeh just before the events. After the July 22, 1994 coup, I was the first Presidential Guard Commander at State House. Lt. Sana B. Sabally, (later Captain Sabally), who was the Vice Chairman removed his Lieutenant’s rank and pinned it on my uniform. We call it field promotion in military terms and it is very common in emergency situations. So while officially I was a Sergeant, Sabally promoted me to the rank of a Lieutenant because we were in an emergency situation and they all respected me as a soldier. A week later, the late Captain Baldeh who was both bandmaster and store keeper visited the State House with brand new ceremonial uniforms for the new military Head of State, then Lieutenant Yahya Jammeh. As State Guard Commander, I had to escort Baldeh to the Head of State. When we got to his office, we found Lieutenants: Sabally, Singhateh and Touray seated. No sooner had we entered the office than Yahya Jammeh turned to his Vice Chairman, Sabally, frowned and exclaimed,” I don’t want to see this man, Sir Jackal in front of me!!” Sabally asked that I return to my post. The following day, they sent Yankuba Touray who was my batch mate, to talk to me. Touray called me aside and said “Sir Jackal, I think is better for you to assist Lt. Basiru Barrow at Yundum Barracks as Adjutant.” I agreed with his proposal and he provided me a driver to Yundum Barracks. My first night at Yundum Barracks, Chairman Jammeh rang up Barrow who was Commander and instructed that I be stripped naked and be sent to Mile II to join Samsudeen Sarr and Mamat Cham but Barrow refused to take his orders. He then instructed the late Lt. Barrow to strip me of my Lieutenant rank and demote me to a Sergeant so I could return to my Company. Barrow demoted me to a Sergeant and appointed me Acting Sergeant Major under the late Lieutenant Gibril Saye. I think this will help your readers to appreciate how my problems with Yahya Jammeh started, the guy had always felt intimidated by my presence, because as you know Jammeh is a coward, not a soldier but an ordinary boys scout who uses scare tactics to threaten Gambians. As far as I am concern, Yahya Jammeh is Gambia’s biggest coward and that is why he kills people to inject fear in the population, but his day is coming.

ECHO: So what led to bloody November and what role did you play to unseat Jammeh’s junta, an illegal government that came to power through coup de’tat? 

JOOF: Prolonged military rule was anathema to the July 1994 coup that brought Yahya Jammeh and the AFPRC junta to power and if you don’t trust me, please call Sana Sabally and find out. Every soldier at Yundum Barracks wanted a very democratic Gambia, one beyond Sir Dawda’s PPP government. We all thought that with our little country, a disciplined civilian regime could have continued with Jawara’s democratic gains and further improve on that by halting corruption and mismanagement. However, within a very short period, it became evident that the July revolution was a dismal failure. Jammeh began arresting innocent Gambians, law and order began to disappear, detention without trial, torture, intimidation and general banditry became the order of the day. Every soldier felt betrayed by the new regime and there was general dissatisfaction across the spectrum from both military and civilian. Like in most situations in Africa, then men of the Gambia National Army felt obliged to rescue what little democratic traditions we had and this is what led to the events of November 11, 1994, and July 1997; to restore democratic civilian rule, the rule of law and good governance in The Gambia and end Yahya Jammeh’s terror.

ECHO: So what really happened?

JOOF: The late Lt. Barrow, late Lt. Gibril Saye and late Lt. Dot Faal were equally frustrated by the general state of terror in the streets, the arrests, the torture of civilians and the draconian military decrees and all of us talked about the situation and felt there was need for change for the betterment of all Gambians. So we openly discussed the situation and some soldiers after we expressed our grievances, sneaked and reported us to the Council members. So on November 11, 1994, Vice Chairman Sabally, Defence Minister Singhateh and NIA Director General Samba Bah visited Yundum Barracks and held a general meeting at the senior NCO’ Mess during which they advised us against a coup rumour. Singhateh pulled out a Chinese pistol and fired shots in the air threatening to kill any soldier who conspires to overthrow the AFPRC government, they then returned convinced that they have talked us out of anything related to a coup plot. We were however determined to follow Barrow at 2:00Am to chase Yahya Jammeh out of State House. Surprisingly, by 11:30, Vice Chairman Sabally and Defence Minister Singhateh returned to Yundum Barracks and lay waiting. Singhateh and his boys actually entered the Camp through the kitchen door and moved towards the Guardroom area.

The late Sgt.Fafa Nyang

At this stage the late Sgt. Fafa Nyang and I were seated at the Guardroom. He said, “Boy, let me see what the boys were doing at the kitchen area.” Once at the kitchen, Edward Singhateh arrested him, but as they were trying to arrest others, he escaped and found me at the Guardroom and said, “Sir Jackal, they are here, Singhateh is arresting the boys, he arrested me but I escaped.” Sgt. Nyang’s gun was seized but I had my AK-47 Riffle fully loaded; I even had extra rounds on me. I advised Fafa that we must immediately leave the camp and return later. As we ran towards the Brikama high way, Edward Singhateh was firing shots in the air. We however took a taxi to Brikama where we met Cpl. Lamin Bojang and Sgt. Basiru Camara (a.k.a Tambula) who was executed by Sergeant Alhaji Kanyi later that fateful day. After a while, Bojang, Camara, Nyang and I decided to return to Yundum Barracks. On entering Yundum Barracks, Cpl. Lamin Bojang disappeared and so Sgt. Fafa Nyang, Sgt. Basiru Camara and I (three Sergeants) decided to go straight to Sgt. Nyang’s house on the military camp and take cover. As the drama unfolded, I suggested that we leave the house because Nyang’s mother was there visiting and the wife too was there. Nyang was apparently so nervous that he refused to leave. So around 5:15AM Sgt. Camara and I left Nyang’s house and headed towards the Brikama high way. Once Singhateh and group sighted us they began firing but we eluded them, took a taxi and made it to Brikama but we had no guns at this time. We stayed in Brikama briefly and then returned to Yundum Barracks where we found chaos. Soldiers were being arrested on a large scale, gunshots every 30 seconds. Sergeant Camara went straight to his Military Transport Unit (he was a driver) and I went straight to my office at the Delta Company where I was responsible for infantry and ceremonial parades. No sooner had I taken a seat than my colleague Cpl. Alhaji Kanyi (later Sergeant Kanyi) came into to my office and revealed that Edward Singhateh had ordered him Kanyi to sign out for pistols and grenades from Sergeant Major Gregory Kangkakhan to arrest all suspected coup plotters and have them executed before mid-day.

Sgt.Alhaji Kanyi & Edward Singhateh

Where they resist, Kanyi told me, Singhateh had given him the powers to kill them immediately and that he has specifically instructed him, that I Alhagie Cham Joof- Sir Jackal be executed immediately. After Kanyi said this I just kept quiet and refused to respond. He waited for a response but I remained mute. He then walked out of the office and headed towards the armory to get his arms. In the next 30minutes I was at Brikama from where I took a taxi to Darsilami. On the way to Darsilami the taxicab driver had appeared suspicious and I asked him to drop me off at a senior military officer's home so that would alley his fears that I was actually up to anything sinister. He dropped me off and I paid him. Soon after he took off, I ran helter-skelter to one local man whom I have known before and narrated the unfolding situation at Yundum. He was so kind that he gave me water and asked that I take a shower. He gave me civil clothes and food. I ate and decided to sleep but less than two hours, soldiers where all over Darsilami looking for me. Their first spot? Where the curious taxicab driver had dropped me off. My Good Samaritan ran to the bedroom and said you must leave now because the soldiers are here. I immediately took off on my heels and within minutes I had melted into the thick forest from where I trekked to the Cassamance border village of Katack. I then settled in Katack for three years from where I monitored developments in The Gambia. I would listen to the BBC focus on Africa programme everyday. I had opened a boutique and business was pretty good. Later on, my boys from State House and the other military barracks would visit me. I would brew them Chinese green tea and cook Benachin with fish. I would go to Kartong every other weekend and Darsilami once a month to buy groceries and supplies for my boutique. I finally secured the services of some good business people who supplied me merchandise. Every Friday, I rode my bicycle to Douloloug for the Friday congregational prayers. It was during my visits to Douloloug that I discovered Jadama and later came to know that my other colleagues Lieutenants Alieu Bah, L.F. Jammeh and Jarju were at Ziquinchor...(To be continued). In Part II we will deal with the encounter with the three Lieutenants, the Kartong attack, how it was planned, difficulties encountered after the camp was raided, the trip to Gunjur, the encounter with the GNA forces while enroute to Yundum Barracks, the retreat to Cassamance, how and why the others were caught, Sir Jackal’s return to Katack, his flight to Douloloug, to Cassamance Sheriff Kunda, to Ziquinchor, to Guinea Bissau, to the islands of Cape Verde and back to Bissau, to Guinea Conakery, his booming restaurant business, his return to Bissau and settlement in Dakar and how he took a boat to the Canaries and to Germany from where The Gambia Echo interviewed Alhagie Cham Joof- Sir Jackal.

As we went to press, our State House operative has informed us that the regime was anxiously waiting for this Sir Jackal exclusive. Most soldiers at State House were made to believe that Alhagie Cham Joof was shot in the chest and died in the woods of Marakissa. They combed the forest for one month after the Kartong attack because the report was that Joof was shot and was bleeding. When we called Joof to update him, he simply said, “ They might as well start looking for Jammeh’s body because if I am dead then he too is dead. It is all propaganda nonsense. Tell them that I am from Ballanghar and would appreciate it if you can link me with Gambian TV so I can proof to Jammeh that I was never shot.”   (Part II comes out Thursday!!)