Mama Linguere Sarr of FatuRadio Network had an impromptu and revealing interview with a former member of the so-called Youth of Dictator Yaya Jammeh, on Monday August 31, 2015. The former Green Youth has now absconded to Italy, as a refugee, through the Backway (See SoundCloud 9/02/2015 below) . The youth seems to be holding back some of the heinous activities he witnessed, in his calm voice, but he said enough scary things, and that  left the host speechless at the end.

The article below was originally published on our PPP page on September 2014, sounding the alarm of the real and vile role of the Green Youth paramilitary organization headed by AFPRC KMC Mayor, Yankuba Colley. This accidental interview further validates our story. Please read below and listen to the interview for yourself.

Who Are The Green Boys & Girls, or Green Youths of Gambia?

The Green Youths of Dictator Yaya Jammeh & the AFPRC are the most dangerous organization in the country, period! I would like to explain & and elaborate. .. The Green Youths are a paramilitary organization, deceptively paraded as a youth training program, to support Jammeh’s various illegal activities, enforce his brutish decrees, protect his illegal business dealings, and intimidate the people. It is headed by the KMC Mayor Yankuba Colley.

My friends, don’t be fooled, mark my word this day. Their undisclosed job description is to be the eyes & ears – informants – for the Jammeh’s NIA in every community, on every street, high school, club, taxi cab, Masjid, markets etc. They are trained in reporting on the activities and movements of perceived enemies of the junta, clandestinely to the NIA. They are also trained in handling light weapons, secretly, on Jammeh’s high fenced off illegal properties, spread strategically across the country. They also help secretly stash, or pre-position weapons on Jammeh’s various farms close to opposition strongholds, in especially in the Kombos, Fonyi, Jarra, and Kiang & Badibou. They are also trained to disrupt and prevent opposition rallies or activities, intimidate supporters or start fights. They also follow Jammeh around the country to enhance his aura of mysticism & control, mind you, they are trained dancers & entertainers, all to enhance Jammeh’s image.

Was it a coincidence that the Green Youths were at the border near Basse recently  ( in 2014) , to assist the military in denying the body of Buba Baldeh entry in The Gambia for proper burial…The Green Youths have been known to locate & help the NIA, Junglars,  kidnap people, whose whereabouts still remain unknown. The army and NIA routinely recruit among their ranks. The Green Youths come from the unemployed population, who, out of desperation, succumb to the seductive appeal of traveling & partying in Kanilai, & around the country for free. During the training & adventure, most of them become exposed to alcohol, marijuana & sexual promiscuity for the first time, largely against the wishes of their parents. As you well know, loose morals, lack of parental supervision, the possibility of sexual experimentation is very seductive to young people who feel trapped by poverty, and overwhelmed with raging hormones. As young men & women, many of them rebellious, high school drop outs, they seize the opportunity to also enhance their self-esteem, & elevate their perceived low social standing in their community. According, to the former Green Youth absconder, now in Italy, pregnancies are a common occurrence, and parents are intimidated to challenge their young children about it. Many men have become emasculated and timid, because Dictator Yaya Jammeh routinely threatens any husband who dares to refuse their wives to travel to Kanilai unaccompanied, to entertain him.                 The level of debauchery and sexual promiscuity of the impressionable youths taking place at Kanilai is heartbreaking and bordering on criminality and child molestation, encouraged by the Dictator Jammeh. There is a ready and abundant supply of condoms, by Jammeh, and he has publicly condemned the use of condoms as un-African! The Green Youths are the enforcers living among the people, high on drugs, sexually charged and overly aggressive and morally bankrupt, yet without skills and functionally illiterate, thanks to Yaya Jammeh.

 Unfortunately, the Green Youth organization is no substitute for an employment or training program. As the numbers grew, Jammeh is unable to sustain or maintain them, because they have totally become dependent with no marketable skills or education. He is unable to pay them anymore & many families are demanding for their kids, or outright complain that they have been kidnapped & brainwashed to defy them. Today, as we go to press, it is reported on FatuRadio site that the unceremonious divorce has finally occurred…some of the Youths have been thrown out, evicted, to face the elements on their while they are owed millions of Dalasis!

What more evidence do you need that this is another example of the failure of this junta? Please help them, the former Green Youths, your family members, to re-settle back into civilization. They need to be cleansed of all the brainwashing they have been through. Remember that Jammeh is still keeping the more dedicated thousands, to activate for 2016 election season. The Green Youths, as a paramilitary organization, has historical precedence. Hitler & the Nazis had the feared Brown Shirts, Saddam Hussein had the Feddayeen, & Laurent Gbagbo had the Young Patriots, led by Charles Ble Goude. Remember that Yaya Jammeh was the only president in the whole wide world to openly support Gbagbo during the Ivorian civil war…coincidence? I don’t think so, ah beg…By the way, both Gbagbo & Ble Goude are detainees at the International Criminal Court! So, please help rescue family members & friends who are still part of the Green Youths, help stop their abuse & militarization. This information comes from a former Green Youth. Real democracies create strong and lasting institutions to enhance strong values, promote equality, independence, and opportunity for all who want to try.

Please join the PPP, & help us tell the truth to our people as we prepare for 2016 elections. Please Like us on Facebook, and spread the word to friends & family. Stay tuned. Thanks

Based on a picture taken of me and Omar Faye, the ambassador of the Republic of the Gambia at the commemoration of Father Anthony Gabisi’s 30 years of service to the Catholic Church in the Gambia, the Freedom online newspaper posted an editorial titled: “DUGA, what’s the difference between Omar Faye and Yaya Jammeh”? Well, I will leave that to Freedom’s editorial board to answer. But I will pose my own question: what’s the difference between the Freedom Newspaper editorial and me?

Let me reaffirm my position once more. I am a revolutionary. I am not a “head hunter”.

I am in this fight for the long haul to ultimately transform our beloved Gambia in particular and Africa in general into a new society with revolutionary insights and foresight.

We have come a long way to allow a mere picture to take us off our path of resistance against tyranny and our “eyes off the prize”. I honestly don’t need to defend myself or DUGA but rather drive home the necessity of attaining political maturity in this period and into subsequent generations. In order to build a proud future Gambia, we need a highly sophisticated citizenry capable of exhibiting political maturity. The picture can only sway the politically naïve and those who choose to remain willfully ignorant.

I have always abhorred injustice and repression, wherever it raises its ugly head. My abhorrence spans the African world, from the Gambia to Washington DC and beyond. That invitation was an honor by the Gambian Christian Association, which I gladly attended. The picture is just a picture, nothing more.

Putting the Omar Faye issue aside; was it not my own flesh and blood that served as the first Minister of Agriculture in the Jammeh regime? Didn’t my niece serve in the Jammeh regime? Didn’t a comrade of mine join the Jammeh regime? In all these instances, did I give up the fight against the neocolonial Jammeh regime? Absolutely not! I have maintained my unwavering stance against the Jammeh regime since their “lift onto the saddles of power”.

The fight against Jammeh’s tyranny to me has nothing to do with family, friends and neighbors (waa Banjul). But also, Jammeh cannot in any way destroy my principled relationship with family, friends and neighbors.

It reminds me of when comrade Fidel Castro and Bill Clinton crossed paths in the corridors of the United Nations and shook hands. The incident achieved “breaking news” status and got highly debated in the US media for days on end. Many willfully ignorant republican and democratic leaders chastised Clinton for shaking hands with their “enemy” and a “dictator”. Fidel exhibited absolute political maturity and shook Clinton’s extended hand.

We are in this fight to win on our own terms; not Jammeh’s. Therefore, we will not leave any arena or terrain the APRC operates within goes uncontested, even within his support base. The Jammeh regime is standing on a “two legged stool”, we have broken two legs of the stool, which explains the balancing acts to keep steady from falling, such as the “massive prisoner pardon”, the subtle signs of “meaningless reconciliation” and “meaningless peace”. Even though the regime is dying but not yet dead, we will continue to fight for a politically conscious proud- future Gambia as oppose to a country of “blind patriots” at the service of one tyrant, Jammeh. We must win the vast majority of the people to eradicate the social backwardness that came with the AFPRC – APRC regime. Most of his support base knows the end is near; you have nothing to lose but Jammeh and your chains. Discard him into the dustbin of history and redeem yourselves.

I want to thank all the sons and daughters of our beloved Gambia who refused to be swayed from reality and keep their “eyes on the prize”, particularly my comrades Pa samba Jow and Ngange Demba Njie, likewise the Gambian Outsider, who weighed in on the matter. We must cultivate the terrain for political maturity and social responsibility. A proud – future Gambia is on the horizon, let’s build it from the bottom – up. Gambia cannot coexist with Jammeh.

On the third anniversary of the heinous Mile Two Prison executions, Gambians solemnly remember one of the most the tragic days in the Gambia’s history. The oldest inmate, Lamin Darboe, had his death sentence commuted to a life in prison years earlier by former President Dawda K Jawara. The youngest, Buba Yarboe of Busumbala village, suffered severe mental illness and was totally incapable of making rational decisions, much less have the capacity to understand his surroundings.

And beautiful Tabara Samba, the only female in the group, with little children at home, tried and sentenced for murder in an apparent manslaughter case, was first gang raped by her captors and her breasts cut off in human sacrifice rituals. This is not a preamble of the opening chapter of an Agatha Christie crime novel; it is real, and it happened in the Gambia. What all three individuals had in common was their cruel, mind-numbing execution at Mile Two Prisons on orders of Yahya Jammeh; an act of brutality so unimaginable, it left an entire nation numbed by utter disbelief. On that fateful August night two years ago, when nine inmates were led out of their concrete-walled and steel door cells and executed in cold blood with willful disregard for human life, the Gambia descended further into new depths of mindless barbarity. But this time around, Yahya Jammeh’s fate will not be determined by primitive superstitions and devil worship, which have hitherto dictated the way he ruled the Gambia with bewildering ignorance.

Moving forward, his life will rests in the hands of the Gambian people. For the first time in twenty years, Gambians both at home and abroad, cry out their deadly rage with a determination never before seen in two decades of tyranny and political madness.

For the past twenty years, Yahya Jammeh has ruled the Gambia with an extraordinary cruelty and mean-spiritedness, in the process, turning himself into an object of hate and scorn, but it is his vexing detachment from reality that has locked him into a perpetual state of delusion and illusions of grandiosity. Today, the relationship between Yahya Jammeh and Gambians is a marriage that has never worked well; consequently the time for it to end came and went with each extraordinary abuse of power, which has included the frequent murders of fellow citizens. But the recent execution of as much as twenty-six helpless prisoners is the straw that broke the camel’s back and sealed Yahya Jammeh’s fate for the rest of time. The executions in Mile two Prisons of so many innocent Gambian prisoners is more than anyone can imagine, and if Yahya Jammeh thinks this egregious act of violence will be unremembered a year from now, he is underestimating Gambian’s resolve to keep the memory of the executed alive. More baffling still, while the regime admitted to the execution of nine inmates, the real number executions on Yahya Jammeh’s orders could be as many as twenty-six people, and unless the regime can produce evidence to the contrary, Gambians and the international community will continue to assume that twenty-six; not nine inmates were executed. This case is similar to the Ghanaians’ massacre a decade ago when the regime admitted to eight murders instead of the real number of forty-four executed according to eye witnesses. But to make matters even worst, rumors are rife of the use of the victims body parts in ritual human sacrifice and devil worship.

The fact is, Yahya Jammeh’s extreme dependence on primitive African belief systems, make the rumors not all that far-fetched. If the ritual sacrifice rumors are revealed to be true, it will further aggravate the Gambian people and animate an even more violent outrage among Gambians and the international community. Two years after the execution of as much as twenty-six Gambians and Senegalese; lost in the conversation is the issue of burial of the dead. So far, families of the executed have not received the bodies of their loved ones in order to give them decent burials according to local customs and Islamic tradition. The relatives of the dead are urged to never give up demanding the remains of the dead relative in order give them the decent burials they deserve.

In the same vein, the Gambian public is urged to support the quest by family members to retrieve the dead bodies of their relatives from Yahya Jammeh, no matter how long it takes. In the same vein, the Senegalese community in Gambia should also demand the surrender of the remains of Tabara Samba and Gibbi Bah for repatriation to their villages in Senegal for burial. This effort should be supported by the Senegalese government, yet is remains a mystery why President Macky Sall has still not demanded the return of the remains of his citizens to accord them the proper burials according to their Islamic religion and African traditions. Yahya Jammeh has no authority under any law to continue to detain the remains of his victims executed under a false pretext. Family members of the nine executed have the rights to demand the return of their dead relatives without letting the irrational fear of Yahya Jammeh force them to abandon their obligation to their deceased relatives.

This week, Gambians across the globe will express outrage with remembrances and radio programs that bring back to life that sad day two years ago. While the Senegalese violently demonstrated the execution of their compatriots, the stark contrast in Gambia, where even the media appeared timid to report the executions, was so glaring. But it was the tepid protest letter by the group of six political parties that many found so aggravating and incredulous. And more puzzling still, the group of six’s letter to Yahya Jammeh, arguing the legal basis for the executions, was completely misguided, out of line and irrelevant to the situation. The illegality of the executions is an established fact; besides Yahya Jammeh does not respond to the Gambia’s Constitution or simple common sense. Time and again, he has shown his unwillingness to respect the Constitution and the laws of the land, and the scores of letters from politicians over the years have been ignored with reckless for the laws of the land. The time for the politicians to overcome their fears of Yahya Jammeh is now, and what Gambians expect from Ousainou Darboe and the politicians is to call the country out in a massive show dislike for the regime. Today, hundreds, if not thousands of Diaspora Gambians are ready and willing to join nationwide anti-regime demonstrations seeking the forced removal of Yahya Jammeh. We can no longer afford to be held back by fear, and besides, if such blatant acts of violence, such as the Mile Two Prison execution of nine known and probable 26 inmates do not embolden our collective resolve; it will mean the acceptance of the devaluation of Gambian life. Enough Gambians and non-Gambians have been killed already. It’s time to force change. Meanwhile, let us remember the nine to twenty prisoners Yahya Jammeh has executed.

Kanilai over the weekend was host to hundreds of people from different sectors of Gambian societies including civil servants of different categories and from all the three arms of government. Due to an inescapable directive from the office of the Secretary General and Head of Civil Service, most of us in the civil service had to close our offices last Thursday to join in weeding Jammeh’s numerous farms in and around his home village.

We were joined by other individuals and groups such as APRC political structures, Islamic groups, musicians and cultural groups in answering to the ‘call for help’ by the man at helm of Gambia’s affairs, who instead of acting humble as a servant of the people, poses himself as a master or demi-god who should be worshipped and praised at all times.

Days leading to the weekend’s extravaganza in Kanilai, the national television (GRTS), which Jammeh’s has since personalized ran an advert calling on Gambians and Non-Gambians alike to join the President in Kanilai to celebrate an award given to Gambia for “success in agriculture and fighting malnutrition”. The open invitation was voiced by his longest serving interpreter Alhaji Modou Joof, who himself has been on multiple times, a victim of Jammeh’s sheer egotism that he manifests in almost all his public appearances.

Yaya Jammeh has after inviting people failed to attend most of the activities lined up for the celebration. He was absent in the official ceremony despite the attendance of Heads of UN Agencies and was instead deputies by his Vice President Isatou Njie Saidy. Again, Jammeh failed to show up at the ‘bantaba’, an event held with farmers and stakeholders to discuss the Vision 2016.

However, in his pompous manner, the Kanilai boss appeared in the Saturday night musical and cultural jamboree despite the heavy rains. GRTS was ready and its transmission van, which they moved from its headquarters in Kanifing to Kanilai was visible on the ground ready to relay the fanfare live to the viewers. The event was however a complete failure due to the fact that the musical system could not be used as the rains refused to subside thus allowing for only cultural groups to entertain the President who has a special liking for pageantry and must find reason to organize event occasionally.

Known for his appetite to be surrounded by celebrities, Yahya Jammeh again wasted tax payer’s money by inviting and footing the bills of a group of Nigeria delegation led by actor Francis Duru to join the so call celebration of award. Shamelessly, our only television was on the ground at the Banjul international airport to cover for the news the arrival of Francis giving him an undeserved treatment and attention.

While in Kanilai, drama unfolded on the first night as so many individuals and groups that made the journey to the small village of Kanilai, located a few meters from Cassamance, the Southern part of Senegal were left stranded without rooms to sleep, neither food to eat. The reason being that the erratic President Jammeh, has given orders to soldiers to lock the Kanilai Festival Village which use to lodge several groups of people in dormitory-like facilities unless they pay for use the houses. In addition to paying for housing, some of these loose groups that didn’t come under any Municipal Council or government institution were expected to be feeding themselves by either visiting the local restaurant or go to ‘Sindola’ lodge and buy food

Funny as it sounds, the President who in this instance was the inviter has turned back and asked his invited guests to pay for housing for an amount D 300 = USD 8 per night as well as be buying plate of food for the 3 nights they expected to stay in those facilities. Unable to meet the new regulations imposed by Jammeh for the use of rooms in the festival village, people resorted to appealing to families in the village to host them. This caused a lot of dissatisfaction and anger but only discussed in corners due to fear.

Prior to the start of the weekend’s farming activity and celebrations, reports emerged that President Jammeh had requested gamcel to donate towards the event, a request that could not be honored due to the company’s ailing financial situation.

As a Gambian who has followed with skepticism the actions of President Jammeh, seeing the amount of money he spends on such events and comparing it with what I saw last weekend, I am compel to believe that indeed Yahya Jammeh is broke, the cooperate institutions that used to bankrolled his endless parties are getting red and the economy of the country is indeed in the verge of collapse.

Nyang Njie, in his article, Eulogy to Banjul, (nyangnjie.blogspot.com) beautifully captures the slow and painful demise of Banjul as this once political, economic and cultural capital of Gambia, in a beautiful, poetic, heart wrenching, yet nostalgic revelation.

Banjul is simply the victim of a deliberate, systematic and vindictive policy of neglect and abandonment, by an irresponsible and corrupt junta of Dictator Yaya Jammeh – plain and simple!! While Banjul crumbled, Kanilai was being built up as the parallel and lateral capital, in the middle of nowhere. Kanilai serves no economic, strategic, or cultural significance, and never will, to the development of Gambia. It is far flung and closer to Casamance, than to any place of significance in Gambia.  It is not a riverine or coastal town, no access to any waterway, not directly lying on the Trans -Gambia highway, yet our meager resources are being disproportionately, and discriminately diverted towards building Dictator Yaya Jammeh’s home village?

Banjul still has all the qualities to become a regional economic, political and socio-cultural hub in West Africa, better positioned and suited than any other town. Banjul has, (can have) a deep sea port to attract global trade, as a transit point for re-export trade. Any future export based development program will have to start in Banjul! It connects the northern and southern part of Gambia and Senegal, and rest of West Africa.  It has an airport ( 15km), to support revitalization of the tourism industry, and a road network to connect to the beaches. It has access to a pool of educated and talented work force, industrial areas and resources.  With all of that in mind, why should Banjul be in the abysmal and advanced stage of neglect ad dilapidation, so bad that both the mayor and president do not spend their nights there!

Dictator Yaya Jammeh seized power with a grudge with a chip on his shoulder, to settle scores on perceived wrongs against him and his people, he said this himself, repeatedly To accomplish his agenda he had to destroy the established socio-political, economic and intellectual  class, and rebuild one based on his agenda , image and view of the new Gambia. So inevitably, Banjul became an easy target, and his first victim. He destroyed the economic class, that way Banjul lost it patron sons and daughters. Banjul was the cultural capital because of its generous, endowed economic and intellectual class, and not just the political class, contrary to what he thought.

As the neglect deepened, and became more blatant, many Banjulians just quit and migrated to Kombos, once their children left for mostly Europe or the Americas. As more and more people left, government functions also moved to Kanilai, businesses followed them, or just closed up shop altogether, thus decreasing Banjul’s tax base. This demographic shift became a reality by 2000, precipitated by a vengeful regime in Kanilai, as many properties and family homes fell into disrepair.  Today Yaya Jammeh has become the biggest property holder and hoarder in Banjul. Why? He is confiscating properties that belong to notable families for generations, owns the coastal open space that the writer grew up in, all the way to the bridge.  To add salt to injury, Mayor Bah recently announced the banning ofZimba cultural events on city streets because it “affects” traffic. What affects traffic is the fact the streets have become impassable under the best of conditions, because Independence Drive has become off limits to the citizens who actually live there, restricting traffic a couple of thoroughfares, in and out.  Zimba has been part of the cultural landscape and mystic lure of Banjul from the beginning, but the Mayor found a solution to a problem that does not exist, while failing at his first duty, which is to make sure the residents of Banjul have their rubbish collected and streets passable in the rainy season.

The question is: what are Banjulians willing and prepared to do about it to take back there city?  The list below is not exhaustive, but it can be a starting point.

1.       Electing an independent, accountable and answerable (like Pa Sallah Jeng ) Mayor who lives in the city, and ready to work for it will be a good start. Removing the current Mayor Bah, who is semi-literate, and more subservient to Dictator Yaya Jammeh ( after being voted in as an independent)  should be the first order of business to revive Banjul to its former glory.
2.       Registering the citizens of Banjul to vote in their own interest, turning the city into a formidable voting bloc.
3.    Demanding for Banjul to have its fair share of tax revenue, and make sure that the taxes are spent on restoring services and repairing the    drainage system, or building one where necessary.
4.      Making sure that private businesses and properties pay taxes, including properties under the control of the Dictator.

Many short sighted folks cheered for the junta, prematurely, and danced in the streets, but today Banjul has become a case study of the criminal failure of Dictator Yaya Jammeh and the AFPRC junta. Twenty one years later, Banjul has no passable streets, still has bucket toilets and open air trash heaps that routinely mix with rain water that gets deposited into households, increasing the despair and sense of abandonment.  It’s time for the people of Banjul to take their rightful place in this people’s revolution in taking back the whole country, from Banjul to Koina. Suffering in silence and praying is no longer enough or a solution, and accepting the current worsening situation will ensure the permanent death of Banjul.  Thank you

This article is an improved version of the one posted on PPP Facebook page.