President Adama Barrow will travel to Senegal on Wednesday for the second Gambia-Senegal presidential council meeting.

Gambian and Senegalese experts and ministers on Tuesday started the second Presidential Council Meeting between The Gambia and Senegal. The summit will go through Thursday 12 March.

“The Presidential Council Meeting will be preceded by the Experts Meeting, which will work in sub-committees to discuss Defense and Security, Justice and Consular Affairs, Finance, Transport and Trade, Higher Education, Tourism, Culture, Health, Fisheries, Agriculture and Energy.

“The experts are expected to present a draft report to the Ministerial Session for review before final adaptation during the Presidential Council session on Thursday, March 12, 2020.

“On the final day of the meeting, the two Heads of State, their Excellences, Adama Barrow and Macky Sall will join the experts and ministers for the Presidential Council Meeting to conclude on the draft reports and roadmaps for the various agreements,” State House said in a statement.

In March 2017, President Adama Barrow undertook a state visit to the Republic of Senegal to renew The Gambia Government’s commitment to consolidating the relationship between the Republics of The Gambia and Senegal.

As a result of the shared history and geographical ties, the two Heads of State agreed to the initiation of a bi-annual Presidential Council Meeting, which will allow their experts, technicians and policymakers to work closely together to review their bilateral cooperation and forge new ties.

In March 2018, the first Presidential Council meeting between The Gambia and Senegal took place in Banjul. It was jointly officiated by their Excellences, Adama Barrow and Macky Sall and a series of cooperation agreements were signed to facilitate the implementation of the policy decisions.

By Lamin Njie

PPP leader Papa Njie has lifted the lid on how his decision to join UDP in 2018 came crashing back to earth.

Mr Njie, 50, joined UDP in 2018 shortly before the local government elections, setting his eyes on KMC mayor job – but when it became clear to him he did not stand a chance of becoming UDP’s mayoral candidate, he left the party.

He told QTV’s Viewpoint: “I went to a party [UDP] that I felt we as Gambians could develop KMC but during the process, there were a lot irregularities that I was not comfortable with.

“I wrote to them and said, ‘these are the things we’d all agreed on but you guys are deviating from it, and I am a man of integrity, I would not accept that’.

“So we pushed and pulled, pushed and pulled and I did the honourable thing by resigning.”

Senegalese gendarmerie crossed into Gambia and opened fire on villagers in Garawol Kuta, URR, The Point reported on Tuesday.

Witnessses told the paper heavily armed Senegalese gendarmerie stormed the village on Saturday night and “open fire more than 10 times”.

“The entire village was panic and people started running. They met my younger brother in our compound, and as he prepares to go and take shower. They open fire on him and injured his hand,” Baba Seedy Trawally who says he’s a brother to Sulayman Trawally who was reportedly shot told The Point.

Sulayman has been whisked to Senegal where he has now been admitted in hospital, his brother Baba told The Point.

By Lamin Njie

Sixty youths appeared at a United Democratic Party meeting where they announced they were joining the party.

The youths showed up at UDP’s meeting held in No Kunda, Baddibu on Saturday 8 March.

The youths claimed they were from President Adama Barrow’s National People’s Party.

An NPP official however told The Fatu Network he ‘had no idea’ of members of the party defecting to another party.

By Fatou MF Camara, in Ghana

The Young African Leadership Initiative Program 2020 opened in Accra, Ghana on Monday bringing together 97 youths from across the continent.

A staggering 11,000 people applied for this year’s YALI program but only 97 were selected among them five youths from The Gambia.

YALI is an initiative of United States Department of State which began in 2010.

It is not only aimed at networking young African Youths but it is a life transformation program; an intensed leadership training program that guides and transforms the mindset of the African youth into understanding issues affecting their individual countries and Africa at large and how to tackle those issues.

The program is a five weeks program, two weeks online training and three weeks onsite training in Accra, Ghana.

Mandîng N’kôlu Federation has announced it will be organising a week-long Manding cultural festival in The Gambia

Mandîng N’kôlu Federation is a non-partisan organisation established to preserve and promote the culture of the Mandinka people and it has announced it will organise a week’s cultural festival in The Gambia beginning December 25, 2020.

The group said in a statement: “The maiden event, which will be the first of its kind, is anticipated to attract over 100,000 people from the sub-region and across the globe. Participants are expected to come from countries in the subregion such as Senegal, Mali, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Cote d’Ivoire as well as other parts of the globe as far as the USA, France, Cuba, and Mexico.

“In an increasingly globalized world, not only are our political and economic structures defined by external forces – usually, the force of more prosperous nations, our cultures, values, and ways of life are at risk of being replaced by alien cultures and value systems.

“Our identities as peoples of the world are shaped by our varied cultures and belief systems. Losing one’s culture is the surest way to lose one’s identity and our progress and advancement as a society will depend solely on our ability to define who we are as a people and what we want in life. International Mandîng Festival and many of its kind will play an important role to add structure to our social lives and connect us with our roots.

“As it has been stated many times; “if you don’t know where you’re coming from you will not know where you are headed. In that spirit of self-realisation, we have taken the bold step of revisiting our rich history as a people with hopes of unearthing and reviving as many aspects of our rich culture as possible and to celebrate ourselves as proud Africans with an enviable heritage.

“This is aimed at being an annual event that will seek to bring together all peoples of Manding heritage and all who claim lineage to the great people of Manding.

“The series of events will touch on all aspects of Manding culture as much as possible up to the establishment of one of the greatest empires of pre-colonial Africa and beyond. We will be joined by our cousins of shared heritage on one platform all showcasing our rich and diverse cultures as shaped by migration patterns. Great artists from the subregion and international artists who have successfully carried the rich Manding culture around the world and represented her people with distinction are expected to be in attendance.

“As we draw closer to the date, the program of events, venues and associated details will be relayed to the public. It will be a cultural show like no other and we will showcase our rich customs, music, traditions, and culture. All are invited to patronize this celebration of culture and pride. It is long overdue that Africans take pride in who they are as people and reclaim the narrative of their contributions to the world. Join us for this history-making event!

“For more information and how one can contribute towards the event, please contact any one of the following organizers and founding members on social media: Alasan Gent Ceesay and Omar Wally.”

By Lamin Njie

Gambian migrants living in Italy, Germany and elsewhere in Europe are living on a knife edge following the lifting of a moratorium that had previously halted any attempt to send back undocumented Gambian citizens.

The Gambia last year placed a moratorium on deportation after mass deportation of Gambians from Germany sparked widespread public anger and outcry.

The moratorium was lifted since January this year, a foreign affairs official told The Fatu Network on Tuesday.

The Gambia government won’t speak much on the issue but a Gambian migrant in Italy told The Fatu Network he continues to live in the fear of the ‘unknown’.

“Our future in this country remains uncertain because every day that I wake up, I’m in a state of panic, fear runs through me that could be arrested and removed from this country,” the 23-year-old added.

By Lamin Njie

Police have launched an investigation into the death of two children who were found dead at a deserted automechanic compound in Banjul.

Banjul was left in shock on Monday following the discovery of the dead bodies of two children who had been missing for 10 days. The male and female kids were aged six and five respectively.

The kids were found at an abandoned automechanic compound in Tobacco Road, Banjul on Monday. A small crowd gathered as the bodies were being pulled from a car.

Police spokesman Lamin Njie (not the author of this story) confirmed the incident and said investigations ‘were ongoing’.

“The bodies have been moved to Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital for further examination,” he said.

By Adama Makasuba

Seven hundred teachers on the pay roll Catholic Education Secretariat have decided to launch an indefinite strike over a seven million dalasis arrears.

The body has been also accused of deducting salaries and benefits of its teachers since September last year, with the issue triggering the intervention of Gambia Teachers Union.

Speaking during an emergency news conference on Monday, GTU deputy secretary general Essa Sowe said: “The government and catholic secretaries must ensure that all money deducted from these teachers amounting to seven million plus must be paid [or] failure of which the teachers will consider their engagement in the classroom.”

Mr Sowe added: “We are talking about six-million dalasi for CESCO, and one million dalasi for the duty of GTU probably we are talking about seven to eight million that they owning from their hard-monthly money so this money must be paid.

“The leadership and management of GTU observe with deep regrets that our teacher who are under catholic secretaries have been deducted from their salaries, money which is meant for their social economic wellbeing.”

Babucarr O Joof, GTU general manager also said: “The teachers are not going back unless and until we know where all this money is, and we access to it and send it to right account, then the teachers will go back to work as this is the position of the teacher and the GTU.”

He however called on both the ministry of basic and secondary education and Catholic Education Secretariat to come together and look for lasting solution to the problem.

United Democratic Party has said that it has been fighting for the empowerment of Gambian women spanning over two decades, leading to the celebration of the election of the country’s first female capital city mayor.

The Gambia on Sunday joined the rest of the world to mark International Women’s Day – a day singled out to celebrate women over their achievement in various spheres of human life.

UDP said in a statement on the occasion: “For nearly a quarter of a century, the United Democratic Party has been fighting for women empowerment, gender parity and inclusion of youths and marginalized groups and individuals in the political sphere of the nation. That is why we celebrated the election of Rohey Malick Lowe in 2018 as the first female elected Mayor of the Capital City of the Gambia.

“For the UDP women have always taken the lead, in 2016 when the UDP leaders were arrested and imprisoned following the tragic death in detention of Solo Sandeng, it was the Deputy Secretary General & Party Leader–Aji Mariam B. Secka, the rest of the Executive Committee Members and Women Wing that kept the UDP united. The Deputy Party Leader chaperoned the UDP through the coalition building process that led to the erstwhile Deputy Treasurer and Flag Bearer of the UDP, Mr. Adama Barrow to emerge as the Flagbearer for Coalition 2016.

“This year marks the silver jubilee of the Beijing Declaration which was made when the world came together in Beijing in 1995 for the landmark Fourth UN World Conference on Women, which adopted a far-reaching platform for action for the emancipation of women. That was a historic moment that changed the global struggle for women’s rights and gender equality. But the question we must now ask is what progress have we made in the last 25 years?

“As we celebrated International Women’s Day yesterday, we had to reflect on whether the lives of the women of the world have improved. Are we closer to ending patriarchy and achieving gender equality? Here in The Gambia, progress has been slow and uneven.

“We have made some advances in improving the lives of Gambian women in the social and economic spheres. We have implemented policies and programmes to give practical expression to the rights of women and girls to education, to reproductive health care, to basic services, and to social support. We have several gender-responsive laws around reproductive health, access to justice, customary law. But vast discrepancies exist between the protection these laws offer and what women experience.

“In the Gambia, as in many other parts of the world, women continue to bear the brunt of poverty and unemployment. They are less likely to own a business, less likely to be employed, less likely to be promoted. While the representation of women in the public service has been increasing steadily over the last 25 years, we have not seen similar progress in elected offices, executive positions in business or academia.

“There are some areas where we have gone backwards; for example, nearly all CEOs MDs & Directors-General in the Gambia Government are men. This highlights the fact that there is still a long way ahead, and that the gains we make can be undone unless we are vigilant and focused.

“As the UDP prepares for Congress 2020, we placed the empowerment women firmly on the agenda of our Party renewal process. In particular, UDP will dedicate this year to advocate for the economic and financial inclusion of Gambian women businesses and encourage the State to reduce barriers to entry for women-owned businesses. UDP will work to ensure that women benefit from the opportunities that will be created by the Africa Continental Free Trade Area, which comes into operation this year.

“UDP believes that economic inclusion is essential not only for advancing gender equality, but in fundamentally changing the living conditions of women. It enables them to take greater control over their lives. It also makes them less vulnerable to violence, abuse and exploitation.

“UDP firmly believes that the empowerment of women also means that we need to end all forms of violence perpetrated by men against women. UDP is urging the Gambia Government to ratify the ILO Convention on Violence and Harassment in the Workplace, to work to repeal discriminatory laws within two years, and standardise responses to gender-based violence.

“UDP will be advocating for this silver jubilee of the Beijing Declaration to consolidate the work of the Party around gender-mainstreaming and urgently address deficiencies and shortcomings in respect of political participation of women. We must address with equal vigour the issue of economic opportunities for women. We must strengthen existing mechanisms and frameworks to support women in economic activity and ensure that new pathways are opened up.

“UDP firmly believes that Gambian women must be liberated from the shackles of patriarchy and domination, but most of all, Gambian Women must be given the means to improve their material condition. It is only when women have their own means, when they can earn their own income, when they have assets to call their own, when they have skills and capabilities, then they are able to fully control their destinies.

“When we empower women in our society, what we are in effect doing, is to raise incomes and standards of living, alleviate poverty and build more stable communities. By unleashing the economic potential of women, we are unleashing the potential of our economies to grow and benefit all.

“Finally, UDP believes that investing in women’s economic empowerment sets a direct path towards gender equality, poverty eradication and inclusive economic growth. Women make enormous contributions to economies, whether in businesses, on farms, as entrepreneurs or employees or by doing unpaid care work at home. We need to ensure that they realise the full benefit of their contributions.

“An entire generation has been born and grown to adulthood since the Beijing conference 25 years ago. We cannot wait another quarter century before we achieve gender equality. Let us make this the generation that achieves equality, empowerment and emancipation.”

By Sarjo Brito

A Gambian gender and human rights activist Nancy Jallow has called out Gambian women in power for not caring about the plight of women in the country.

One person singled out is the Vice President of The Gambia Dr Isatou Touray.

Jallow said she expects the Vice President to be at the forefront when it comes to addressing women issues.

Vice President Touray spent most part of her career advocating for the rights of women but activists say since she took up the Vice President position, she has become tone-deaf to women matters.

“The Speaker of The National Assembly is also a woman and I have never seen her in any women related activities. And the disappointing part is you invite them to these events and they RSVP but will never show up at the end. So, to me, maybe we do not have the right women in these position,” Jallow said.

Jallow said it is about time for the narrative about women to change, especially in Africa where women have been suppressed for a very long time.

The Gambia joined the rest of the world to commemorate International Women’s Day and while it has been a very quiet one here, women in other countries like Mexico and France took to the streets, demanding for their governments to respect their rights.

By Adama Makasuba

A school going girl has died after she was hit by a loose truck wheel. Ramatoulie Jallow was a student at Tujereng Senior Secondary School.

It happened in Tujereng on Friday at about 12pm

An eye witness told The Fatu Network: “She was a student and she was going to school and then a lose wheel from truck met her where she was standing and hit her.”

“She was rushed to a nearby Batakunku health centre but those people couldn’t help and she was referred to Tujereng health centre where she met her dead,” Mr Bah added.

Police spokesman Lamin Njie could not immediately comment on the matter.

By Lamin Njie

Dr Ismaila Ceesay has said ‘somebody’ from the village would have known PDOIS leader Halifa Sallah was more qualified than President Adama Barrow to lead the country.

Seven opposition political parties in October 2016 rallied behind President Barrow at an elective convention held at Kairaba Beach Hotel ahead of presidential elections later that year. Three hundred and eight delegates voted for Mr Barrow to Halifa Sallah’s sorry 65 votes. Four hundred and ninety delegates voted at the convention.

Top political commentator Dr Ismaila Ceesay wondered on Friday at American Corner, in a fresh review of the Gambia leader: “I cannot understand the logic in terms of the way they voted at that primary. If indeed the leaders of those parties where involved saw Gambia, I cannot see how they could have chosen Adama Barrow over Halifa Sallah.

“Even if you woken up somebody who is from the village and never been to school from sleep, you put Adama Barrow, he speaks for five minutes at that convention [and] you put Halifa Sallah, you will know that Halifa Sallah was more qualified to put The Gambia on a path towards democracy, was more qualified to put the Gambia towards a transition. Today, there would not have been the issue of ‘three years’ and ‘five years’.

By Lamin Njie

The Gambia government has refused to give Global HOMM its property in Bijilo, five months after a court ordered a return of the property.

Humanitarian group, Global HOMM fought a court case together with the Gambia government over a property it owns in Bijilo. The land had been scheduled to lodge a clinic to provide long-term medical care for The Gambia.

But in 2010 however, the Jammeh administration had abruptly kicked Global HOMM out of the country after it was accused of taking money from people and not giving them the medical service that they need. The Jammeh government then quickly gained control of the group’s property in Bijilo.

Global HOMM returned to the country seven years later, in 2017 and went ahead to claim its Bijilo property. The property – a vast land – was previously being occupied by former President Jammeh’s ‘Green Boys’. Police anti-crime unit are now the new occupants of the property.

In a statement shared with The Fatu Network, the organisation said “several meeting were held with the Minister of Local Government and Lands as well as the Attorney General coupled with letters written to them, the Minister of the Interior and the Director of Lands to facilitate the return of the Mission’s property but nothing came out of it.”

“In fact attempts to even pay the outstanding land rent for the property was refused by the Director of Lands on the representation he has been instructed not to receive any such payment from Global HOMM. In effect all attempts to recover the property failed,” the organisation said.

The organisation’s statement continued: “Consequently the Mission decided that it was necessary to seek redress in the Courts and therefore commenced legal action in March, 2019 against the State claiming for possession of the Mission’s property and that the payment of Land rent be received by the relevant authority. In September 2019, judgement was given in favour of Global HOMM and an order was made for Global HOMM to be given possession of the said property following the State’s admission in Court that the said property remains the property of Global HOMM.

“Notwithstanding the notice and receipt of the Writ Of Possession by the Sheriff of The Gambia pursuant to the judgement dated 12th September 2019 of the Kanifing Magistrate Court; notification by the Sheriff to the Defendants, (Inspector General Of Police, 1st Defendant; Minister For The Interior, 2nd Defendant; Director For Lands & Surveys, 3rd Defendant; Attorney General, 4th Defendant); Application and notice to the Registrar for the issue of the Certificate of Order against the State; issuance of Certificate of Order Against The State from the Registrar of The Magistrates’ Court to the State; Global HOMM has yet to given possession of all that property situated at Bijilo in the Kombo North District of the West Coast Region of The Gambia.

“Global HOMM through its lawyer subsequently met with the Sheriff of The Gambia, the Chief Justice, the Minister of Local Government and Lands as well as the Inspector General of Police and requested that the Judgement of the Court be complied with but Global HOMM still continues to be dispossessed and deprived of its property.

“It has become apparent to the Mission that the very persons whose paramount duty is to uphold the Constitution of The Gambia, protect the law and abide by judgments of the Courts are the very ones violating the law and most importantly the Constitution which protects the right to property. ‘What an irony’. The Sheriff of The Gambia is helpless because he is unable to get the support of the Police to evict its people.

“It has been over five months since the Court ordered the State to give Global HOMM possession of its property. The wheel of Justice is turning and Global HOMM is expectant for the rule of Law to prevail. Let Justice not be delayed nor denied any longer. Let the healing continue for the people of The Gambia and beyond.”

By Lamin Njie

US Council of Muslim Organisations has announced it will give The Gambia medical equipment worth up to 22 million dollars.

It comes as USCMO on 6 March awarded Justice Minister Abubacarr Tambadou its highest award of honor over his efforts in saving Burma’s Rohingya minority.

The top US Muslim group said the award is in recognition of Mr Tambadou’s ‘courageous’ pursuit of justice for the ‘long-persecuted’ Rohingya.

The Gambia last year canvassed support from the Muslim world and filed a case at the International Court of Justice alleging that Myanmar was committing “an ongoing genocide” against its minority Muslim Rohingya population.

In January, the world’s top court ordered Myanmar to stop genocidal acts against the Rohingya.

USCMO is among top Muslim organisations that have since announced they stand in solidarity with The Gambia.

Last month, the leader of the group Oussama Jammal met The Gambia’s ambassador to the United States Dawda Fadera to congratulate the country over its ‘laudable’ efforts over the Rohingya.

By Lamin Njie

United States Council of Muslim Organisations has awarded Justice Minister Abubacarr Tambadou its highest award of honor over his efforts in saving Burma’s Rohingya minority.

In a letter dated 6 March 2020, the top US Muslim organisation said the award is in recognition of Mr Tambadou’s ‘courageous’ pursuit of justice for the ‘long-persecuted’ Rohingya.

The letter signed by the organisation’s secretary general Oussama Jammal said, in part: “It is with heartfelt salutations of peace and blessings that I greet and welcome you this evening on behalf of the United States Council of Muslim Organisations to receive our Highest Award of Honor in recognition for your courageous pursuit of justice to save the long-persecuted Rohingya minority of Burma from the ongoing acts of a brutal genocide and ethnic atrocities by the Myanmar government, army and chauvinist Buddhist paramilitary forces.

“Your historic actions at The Hague brought Myanmar’s civiliang leader state counselor Aung Sung Suu Kyi to the International Court of Justice, the United Nations’ hisghest court, to account for her country’s systematic and brutal mass killings, arson and rape against its defenceless, helpless Rohingya victims. There, she would not even utter the name, ‘Rohingya’, not once in a brazen and utter defiance of their legitimacy as a people and their very humanity. Yet your cogent, spirited and skilled presentation at the bar of the high court exposed this once-globally-lauded Nobel Peace Prize laureate called ‘The Lady’, as a monger of bloodshed and perpetrator of horrific brutality against the innocent Rohingya. You brought her down from her lofty perch of feigned nonviolence in the eyes of the entire world, from peace icon to pariah, from high honor to fallen disgrace.

“And lest there be any doubt of the utter thoroughness of your success at The Hague against Myanmar and the complete undoing of the formerly celebrated personage Aung Sang Suu Kyi as a symbol of peace, Mr Tambadou, let me say, just yesterday the City of London Corporation revoked the honor of ‘Freedom of the City’ it had granted Suu Kyi in 2017.

“Amnesty International stripped Suu Kyi of its highest and prestigious Ambassador of Conscience Award, given in 2009.

“The US Holocaust Memorial Museum rescinded its first and highest human rights award awarded to Suu Kyi in 2012.

“Oxford University banished Suu Kyi’s portrait from its world of renown for her abetting of the Burmese genocide against the Rohingya. And the city of Oxford has nullified Suu Kyi’s Freedom of Oxford Award for her ‘inaction’ to save the helpless Rohingya.

“Your divestment and dismantling of Aung Sang Suu Kyi of every and any semblance of honor in the name of human rights and all vestiges of association with peace in the mind and judgment of the world has been – importantly and deservedly so – utterly total and profoundly complete; and for this we say thank you.”

The global death toll from coronavirus could reach as high as 15million even in the best-case pandemic scenario, a new study says.

The research by the Australian National University also found that global GDP could shrink by as much as $2.3trillion even in what they call a ‘low-end’ pandemic.

In the most disastrous scenario, the death toll could reach a staggering 68million including hundreds of thousands of deaths in Britain and the United States.

In that worst-case pandemic, some countries’ economies would shrink by as much as eight per cent in a global meltdown.

The two researchers who published the paper, Warwick McKibbon and Roshen Fernando, warn that ‘even a contained outbreak could significantly impact the global economy in the short run’. (DailyMail)

By Lamin Njie

Gambia Action Party flagbearer Lamin Bojang has disagreed with suggestions all soldier presidents preside over governments that violate and abuse rights of citizens.

The Gambia is struggling to come to terms with the 22 years rule of former President Yahya Jammeh – a period that saw the elimination scores of Gambians. So many others also had their rights violated in the form of arrest, detention, torture and disappearance.

Former commander of the Gambian army, now flagbearer of Gambia Action Party Lamin Bojang has however said not all soldiers behave the same, as some Gambians continue to reservation over his decision to vie for the country’s top job.

“What we have gone through under Yahya Jammeh, it doesn’t necessarily mean that anybody who comes, like a soldier or a retired general, is going to be like what we have gone through,” the retired general told The Fatu Network.

Mr Bojang also said “in military you don’t go to military schools to go and learn how to kill people”.

By Adama Makasuba

The TRRC heard on Thursday former President Yahya Jammeh’s vilest killer Sanna Manjang cut the head of a Casamance rebel off his body and then cut his body into pieces.

Ensa Keita told the probe former army lieutenant colonel Sanna Manjang killed Kajali Jammeh in Kanilai after the Senegalese came into the country to sell the illicit drug cannabis. It happened while Keita was arrested and detained in Kanilai.

He told the probe: “He used a cutlass. He didn’t place him (Jammeh) on the ground and slaughter him. They (Sanna and fellow soldiers) and Kajali were standing and speaking. He (Sanna) had a cutlass in his hand. They stood facing each other. He told Kajali, ‘I will kill you, you will not return to Casamance, you guys come with guns and commit crimes here’.

“Kajali told him, ‘yes, I am an MFDC rebel but we do not go around committing crimes, I only brought something to sell to make a living’. He told him, ‘you’re lying’. He then told him, ‘my discussion with you will be brief’.

“I was standing at the door and listening to the conversation. Badjie was sitting down watching on as Sanna stood while another soldier friend stood behind him. He later came to know it was Sulayman Sambou.”

The prolific killer then told the ill-fated rebel his time in this world was up.

Keita told the TRRC: “He said to Kajali,’ you time has come to an end, I see nothing other than to kill you; I arrested you, you didn’t beg me; instead you punched me and tried to escape.’

“I never imagined he would behead him. I never imagined a human being would face a fellow human being and take a cutlass and cut off his head. But when he swung the cutlass, blood spattered everywhere as Kajali’s tongue kept wagging in his mouth. He then went over and stamped on Kajali’s head.

“He then turned and said, ‘Solomon, bring me a bag’. Sulayman then came, dipped his hand in his pocket and removed a bag. He opened the bag and Sana then picked the head, he put his fingers in his nose and put it in the bag and left.

“Badjie and others came to clean the blood but Sana came and got angry. He asked Badjie, ‘did I ask you to clean this place?’

“He then ask Badjie to bring him (his body) and place it on the concrete slab. He told Badjie, ‘it’s crocodiles who will eat him’. He then cut his legs. He then came to his waist and cut it. He then tore the upper part of the body into two pieces. Sulayman Sambou then brought an empty sugar bag. When they put him in the bag, Sana held one end of the bag and Sulayman held the other. They then faced where the lions where and said, ‘behind the lions, are crocodiles’. When they returned, he told Badjie to clean the place. “