The sorrowful massacre of 44 Ghanians

By Pa Modou Cham

In July 2005, 44 Ghanian migrants were killed by a death squad of Yahya Jammeh. Martin Kyere was the 56^th, who remains the only survivor and has explained his escaped recently. He is fighting for the former Gambian dictator to face the law.

A paramilitary unit controlled by then-Gambian president Yahya Jammeh summarily executed more than 50 Ghanaian, Nigerian, and other West African migrants in July 2005, Human Rights Watch and TRIAL International said.

In July 22, 2005, Martin Kyere leaves the beach of Mbour, Senegal to Spain in sight. There were 56 people aboard the boat.  Mainly Ghanaians, two Senegalese, Nigerians, Togolese, Ivoirians and a Gambian, all died, massacred by the "junglers", a paramilitary squadron controlled by the former Gambian dictator Yahya Jammeh. 

When he recounts the circumstances of this "night without heaven" and the massacre that followed a few days later, it is in such a low voice that one must listen attentively. That night, the sea is dismounted. The boat should normally join a smuggler's boat off Banjul, the Gambian capital. The winds are strong, so strong that they fail to overturn the boat. For a long time, the skiff was shaken by the waves, while the passengers scanned the surroundings in search of the boat supposed to lead them towards Europe. In vain, they will never find it.

They decide to land on the beach of Barra, which faces Banjul. At the presidential palace, on the other side of the river Gambia, the security services are on edge. On this day of celebrations of the seizure of power of Yahya Jammeh, July 22, 1994, the secret services fear an attempted coup by foreign mercenaries. Then, when the 56 passengers of the canoe land, they immediately arrested and placed in detention. They are beaten. After a week in detention, they are separated into several groups and taken to Casamance, a southern region of Senegal bordering Gambia, where they were killed.

Thirteen years later, Yahya Jammeh has fled to Equatorial Guinea after being sidelined in January 2017. Martin Kyere and the families of the victims of Yahya Jammeh are still seeking to bring the former president to justice, with the support of NGOs, Human Rights Watch and Trial International. Martin Kyere made the fight of his life.

“Our intention has never been to join Banjul. We joined boat smugglers with whom you had lost contact. About four-thirty in the morning we sent six men to Banjul to join the captain. They were immediately pursued by the police. We were warned and we landed at Barra, nearby, around five or six in the morning. There, 25 or 30 armed policemen stopped us and took us to the police station.”

“As soon as these police and soldiers came to pick us and pointed their weapons on us. When they took us to the police station, they checked our identities, checked all the papers we had on us. Some of us were beaten, lost their teeth, were tied their hands in the back half-naked. There was a lot of blood. We took all our money. I had $ 1,500 collected by friends and family to go to Europe.”

“We were in the hands of the police and they had control over us. We are talking about 200 police, military or security forces. We did not know Gambia, we could not identify anyone.”