It is almost three years since President Yahya Jammeh left for exile in Equatorial Guinea. Ironically, life has been far from being the same for many people. The former Gambian dictor’s victims and the very people he had used to harm others have been reeling with fears. All of them live in trauma, trying to recollect their uncelebrated dark past.
Despite the gruesome testimonies by witness after witness, majority of Gambians wonder why a country that had been in the past known for being a beacon of democracy, the rule of law and human rights was turned into land of senseless bloodletting. It all started on July 22, 1994 when a group of disgruntled soldiers overthrew Sir Dawda Jawara from power. Most Gambians thought the so-called “military with a difference” would honour its promise of returning to the barracks. Instead the military council outlined provisional projects before its members retired from the army and tightened their grip on power. The only viable means of achieving their goal was to instill dictatorship. In that those who stood on the way of resistance were either murdered, tortured to death or disappeared without trace.
Thanks to the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC) the world is getting into the magnitude of Yahya Jammeh’s wickedness. The watching of the TRRC proceedings have become daily ritual for many people. The more they know about Jammeh’s dirty past the more upset they become. Clearly, no one knows the extent of Jammeh’s damage to everything Gambian. Here is a man who has left a dent on human dignity, social fabric and mindset of Gambians. The dictator’s footprints continue to haunt Gambians and non-Gambians.
In 2006, Jammeh gained the world’s attention after he claimed to have cured HIV/AIDS using herbs. No one – not even medical doctors – challenged the president-turned-doctor. The dictator may be gone but Gambians have now known the secret faces behind Mr. Jammeh’s false traditional healing. For fear of reprisal, these traditional healers — drawn from the Gambia and the subregion — have gone into hiding. Their fears have doubled up after news broke that efforts were under way to prosecute Jammeh on deaths relating to his Hiv/AIDS treatment.
Jammeh’s secret traditional healers prepared the concoction for the patients. Our investigation has uncovered the identity of one of Jammeh’s secret traditional healers. Oumie Saidy, the woman pictured above, believed to have been involved in Jammeh’s fatal treatment, is spotted in Birmingham, England.
Now that the identity of Jammeh’s secret treatment is identified, Gambians want to fish out the likes of Oumie Saidy to answer to their crime of aiding and abetting the former leader. For some families who lose their loved ones to the ill-treatment nothing other than a revenge will satisfy their souls.
Kairo News has contacted Mrs Saidy who confirmed her involvement Jammeh’s HIV/Aids treatment. “I have been hiding all these years but I’m scared that my cover has been blown. I will be wrongfully targeted by families,” she said with a shaky voice.
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