Sir Jackal Breaks Silence Part III

 

By Ebrima G. Sankareh, Editor-In-Chief

 

As promised, we again continue with our exclusive five-hour phone interview with probably, The Gambia’s most elusive and undoubtedly most wanted soldier- fugitive Sergeant Alagie Cham Joof (a.k.a Sir Jackal) as he recounts his problems with the Jammeh government leading to the July 21, 1997 Kartong military barrack’s attack. In Part II Sergeant Joof had explained how Lieutenants: Alieu Bah, L.F. Jammeh and Jarjue visited him at his Katack village refuge in the Cassamance and invited him in a mid-night mission to seize power. All three are serving life sentences of 90 years after the Supreme Court of The Gambia quashed a death sentence by Justice Yahya of The High Court. In Parts I & II we have followed the journey until loyal forces of The Gambia National Army (GNA) attacked them where Lt. Bah sustained gunshot wounds to the leg. Part III picks it from the firefight scene between Gunjur and Brikama in the Western Division.

 

ECHO: So you picked Lt. Bah, got him into the bullet riddled ambulance and headed to Gunjur?

JOOF: Yes, but when we got into the ambulance, I was very angry and terribly disappointed and so I confronted Lt. LF Jammeh.

ECHO: Really, what was the problem?

JOOF: Don’t get me wrong; Jammeh, Bah and Jarjue are excellent soldiers who love The Gambia very much, much more than Yahya Jammeh, the big coward. I was angry because, Alieu Bah was my boy for many years; he served under my Chally Company in the war zone in Liberia, then he was a Corporal and I, an ECOMOG Platoon Sergeant and to see him in pains after all the big talk about Lieutenant Jammeh’s Marabout’s supernatural prowess, was simply unimaginable. So I told LF Jammeh, “You claimed that your Marabout was good, how come Alieu Bah is shot in the leg. Before he responded, I told him that his Marabout was totally false.” At this stage, Jarjue jumped behind the wheel of the ambulance with its flattened tires headed to Gunjur because at this stage we knew, the report was everywhere, the only available option was retreat into Cassamance and plan a more robust attack. However, Lt. Alieu Bah’s bleeding leg coupled with the frequent stops we made whenever we saw a vehicle caused us great delay. In the end, we had to accept that we were constrained and used the fastest escape route. We abandoned the vehicle; I pulled out a string from one amulet by my waist and administered it on Lt. Bah as a first aid treatment to arrest his profusely bleeding leg. Once the bleeding stopped, we used the local routes where we entrusted Bah to an old man, a gardener. I told the man to help Bah; that he was a good citizen who was hurt by some bandits. I shook his hand and said, “Alieu this is what God has ordained but remain strong and faithful, we pray that God protect you” and so we left with very heavy hearts. We were still heavily armed and so we trekked the terrain all the way to the Cassamance border. However, some 2km before the border, we acted tactically and abandoned our weapons. We then talked and ran to cross the border. As we approached the border, we noticed a group of people with shinning boots by the riverbank and upon close examination; we realized that it was GNA soldiers who lay waiting. Once we took a diversion into the forest, a hail of bullets followed us and we ran for cover. They pursued us with live rounds and within minutes, we had disappeared but no one was hit. After the shooting stopped, I lay on the ground and covered myself with green leaves. I waited for about 30 minutes and then I started yelling my colleagues-L.F. Jammeh and Jarjue’s names but no one responded. I was very worried that they may end up in The Gambia because they were not as familiar with the terrain as I was. Before the incident, I had constantly navigated this area for such a moment. Based on my own orientation, I came to realize that within the border moving right means entering Senegal and left means returning to The Gambia and given the foot prints of my colleagues, there was no doubt that they were inadvertently returning to Gambian territory. I followed their footprints for about 45 minutes and knew pretty well that they were doomed and so I returned and headed to the crossing point. I returned to the exact location from where the GNA soldiers had chased us and found that they had left. I pulled one of the canoes to cross into Cassamance and realized that they had also taken away the paddles. I searched in the area but could not get a paddle and so I improvised a palm rum branch (N’jalang) and used it as a paddle to Cassamance. I safely crossed and began to run using the local routes and by 10:00pm I was in a village called Buduk where to my utter disgust, the villagers had converged in one compound watching the capture of Lt. Alieu Bah on Gambian TV. Once I saw Alieu Bah on TV I knew the news was everywhere.

ECHO: Did the TV viewers know that you were with Lt. Bah? 

JOOF: No, not at all. In fact, since no one in the village knew me, I was just a regular visitor on his way home, I played my role well by deceiving the villagers when I surprisingly said, and “I don’t know who these people are but they are really stupid and dangerous”. To my surprise, one old man told me that Yahya Jammeh was worse than these people because he had effectively destroyed The Gambia. I just pretended that I was shocked at his comments and begged to leave after I was shown the route to Katack. In the next three hours I was at Katack and no sooner had my landlord noticed my presence than he came in with a very shaken voice. “Joof he said, pack all your belongings and flee, leave your family here and I will take care of them but you must leave now before the Senegalese Gendarmerie get a tip off that you are back.” I asked him what the matter was and he took me to my boutique, which was empty, allegedly looted by the first batch of Gendarmerie officers dispatched to apprehend me for extradition to The Gambia. It was after mid-night and so I picked some clothes and packed them in a plastic bag headed to no man’s land; amid a very heavy thunderstorm. My children were deep asleep and so I took off and told my landlord to kindly take care of my family. He nodded his head, shook my hand and wished me the best. The place was so dark, it was windy and my flashlight was the frightening lightening intermittently flashing from the sky. I ran the whole night and would occasionally hide in the woods whenever I see vehicle headlights from either direction of the high way. At about 5:00Am I made it to a village en route to Doulouloung where I knew one man, a very respected Marabout who had always said that I was his adopted son. He loved me so much and had always wanted me to live with him. I narrated my problems and he immediately suggested that I stay with his family for good. I explained that the scale of the problem was such that I had to proceed further to Guinea Bissau because I was not comfortable staying in the area. The old man bragged about his supernatural powers that no one was going to arrest me as long as I was under him. I was not the least convinced and so he asked that I rest for some days because I was visibly tired and sleepless. I stayed for three days and on the third day while I was listening to the final edition of the BBC’s Focus on Africa Programme, the old man walked to me and said, that he was informed that a team of military officers with a tanker (Sar de combat) was searching village after village looking for me; that I must leave immediately. I hurried to my room, used the restroom and as I turned around, I sighted a Senegalese military officer brandishing a riffle headed towards me. I scaled the fenced and in less than 100 yards I quietly lay between two contours in a maize farm behind the house. The Senegalese officers stormed the compound and scattered all over the farm in a wild goose chase. The officer who sighted me kept adding more merit to the rumour that Sir Jackal flies under danger situations. “I now believe in what the Gambian authorities say, the man flies because I saw him standing by the fence” he would tell his colleagues. At one moment, I almost laughed because he almost stepped on my head with his heavy military boots. I even prayed Ansar prayers (Timis) in the mud, on my belly while the search was on and I prayed to God to help me escape because my action in The Gambia was meant to safe my beloved country from tyranny and dictatorship. A little after, the soldiers dispersed and on their return, they arrested my landlord.

ECHO: How did you feel after the old man was arrested?

JOOF: I felt very bad but I knew they were not going to hurt him, they did that to get me and they could have succeed because after his arrest, his eldest daughter told the family that a visitor could not replace their father, that they must rigorously search the farm so they could do a prisoner exchange. Remember, I was in Katack since 1994 and by now I could speak fairly good Jola. The entire family agreed and they too ventured from 7:30 to: 900pm and I never moved an inch. At 9:0PM they would normally listen to the Jola news on Radio Gambia and so they retreated into their rooms. Once the noise faded I rose from my contour hideout leaving behind all my belongings and galloped 25km into the wilderness running bare foot. I arrived at Doulouloung at 5:00Am and went to an old acquaintance, a lady and narrated my ordeal. She gave me water and food and asked that I sleep well. At 5:00, she gave me money and some clothes and bade me farewell and I took off again destined to Darsilami Sheriff Kunda about 10km off Doulouloung and by 8:00AM I was there.

ECHO: You wanted to settle there or what?

JOOF: Yes but the Sheriff, the grand Marabout of Darsilami advised me to proceed. He narrated how my former Yundum Barracks colleague Corporal Lamin Bojang from Brikama (the same guy I fled with in November) was lured into a maize farm while there and sprayed with chemicals and then extradited by the Cassamance rebels who where working with Yahya Jammeh. At the time, Bojang was at Mile II Prisons and the Sheriff did not want me to fall in the same trap and so he prayed for me and advised that I proceed to safer shores. Luckily, I met a very nice fellow who was visiting the town and he gave me D2500 and wished me the best. With the money from the lady at Doulouloung and the unexpected D2, 500 from the Darsilami visitor, I was encouraged to leave and so I took off into the thick Cassamance forest. Using the routes to avoid any contact with law enforcement agents, I ran and walked for 4 days before arriving at Ziquinchor the regional capital of Cassamance where I had on a previous trip met an unusual woman who was very sympathetic to me. I explained to her that I was fleeing The Gambia but needed extra money to Guinea Bissau. Her father, a very influential Senegalese politician had no clue that I was the soldier The Gambia government and the Senegalese soldiers were hunting and when the daughter asked for money he helped immediately with 2000 CFA but the fares to Bissau coupled with the numerous expenses associated with bribes and other border and custom tariffs far exceeded the entire monies collected thus far. So with the little money, no form of identification whatsoever, no handbag, I ventured into Bissau via taxi. Less than 2 hours into the journey, the Senegalese Customs stopped our car and asked that every passenger show a traveler’s permit (lesser passé). We formed a single file to the Customs Post where we were inspected. I walked straight towards the office door and half way into the office, I returned and sat in the car. One passenger enquired if I had been inspected and I said yes, at lightening speed. From there on we went through numerous Immigration Posts all the way to Bissau and thank God no one bothered me.

ECHO: So you used the money to stay in a hotel?

JOOF: No, how can a fleeing soldier whose name was all over the news, BBC etc. everywhere stay in a hotel, a public place?

ECHO: I am just curious.

JOOF: Remember, I had told you that I had visited Guinea Bissau previously. It was during that trip that I met three people; a Sierra Leonean, a Senegalese and a Gambian and during my previous six months study tour of Bissau we developed a very cordial relation; we became comrades. So once in town, I contacted them and they were glad that I was with them but given the tension at the time, each gave me ten thousand CFA franc (CFA10, 000) and with CFA30, 000 in hand they advised me to proceed to the Cape Verde Islands until when the news died down in Banjul and then come back to Bissau. I took a boat and traveled to all those numerous islands but life was almost alien to me and how those people lived in those places remains a mystery to me. I could not stay under those conditions especially, the food they ate while I was there and so I decided to go back to my three comrades. Luckily, on my return to Bissau, I met a passenger in the boat and we became good friends. He invited me home and I stayed there for three days before going to my friends. On the third day, my friends were shocked to see me so soon and each one of them accused me of being hot headed, that I wanted to die that was why I returned to Bissau because Banjul was still hunting me. I told them that the conditions on the islands I visited were not different from death and I would rather die than live there. After a sober reflection, they all agreed and provided me a Bissau national ID Card under the alias Suma S.

ECHO: Suma S.? What did the “S” stand for?

JOOF: One day you will know but for now, some information is going to be in coded language for the security of some of the people in Africa.

ECHO: We respect that but just wanted a clearer picture of your journey to freedom.

JOOF: The picture is very clear, but some of the things I give you depend on the situation on the ground; remember that Yahya Jammeh tries to use his NIA to investigate every little thing even though they are the most incompetent intelligence agency in the whole of Africa. So let them go to Bissau and investigate who Suma S. was.

ECHO: So now you have CFA 30,000, a new ID card with the name Suma S., even though we do not still know what the S. means, what did you do with this?

JOOF: The S. cannot be revealed for now and I will not worry about a letter since I candidly told you that I was called Suma. With this new name, I took a taxi to Guinea Conakry and on the way to Conakry I befriended a passenger who invited me to his home where I slept. The following morning he took me to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) to register. At first, the officer who interviewed me refused to entertain my application insisting that Senegal was my Zone not Guinea but after I gave him compelling reasons, he took my application and asked that I return on Thursday. When I returned Thursday, I had my name on the notice board assigning me to report to the UNHCR refugee camp on the Liberian border with Guinea. I did but all I was given was a blanket, Gari for food, sugar and water and the hundreds of emaciated refugees I saw on the cement floor scared me to death. The following morning, I fled the camp and returned to Conakry where I met a very compassionate Sierra Leonean who once lived in The Gambia with a vivid recollection of all the good things that Gambians did for him. I quickly settled down and gave him part of the money I brought to be a partner in his booming restaurant outlet. Within two months, things improved dramatically for me and after seven months, I became a master. I woke up at 5:00AM each morning, boiled dozens of eggs and sliced tomatoes and vegetables fixing sandwiches for bureaucrats. When my business boomed, I added Benechin to the menu and introduced Café Touba. I then opened two restaurants and became a very famous Café Touba vendor. President Lasana Conte, Guinea’s President was my good client and each morning, I would brew and serve him the Café Touba at the Presidential Palace. My second biggest clientele were at the Interior Ministry. President Conte`…  (To be continued) In Part IV we will continue with Sir Jackal’s four-year stay in Guinea, his reluctance to go to war ravaged Sierra Leone, his departure from Conakry to Senegal via Bissau, his stay in Dakar, his journey to Spain and his settlement in Germany from where we had this rare five hour phone exclusive interview.