By Lamin Njie
Two American citizens who disappeared while on a trip to The Gambia were killed on the orders of former president Yahya Jammeh, it has been revealed.
Mamut Ceesay and Ebou Jobe travelled to The Gambia in 2013 but the trip misfired after they disappeared without a trace.
Cindy Gregg, then charge’ d’affaires at the US Embassy in Banjul spoke on the issue at the time saying The Gambia government had denied knowledge of the presence of the two Americans in their custody, while urging the public to come up with information about them.
Her successor, Ambassador George Staples was more upfront on the issue and in a meeting with Gambian editors in December 2014, the top diplomat said of the missing Americans: “My message is very simple: Where are my Americans? Where are they? As far as I can tell, as far as we know, they were picked up and then disappeared.
“We have asked the government for an investigation, we have offered assistance from US organizations like the FBI and we hope and are still hopeful of news and we are waiting. An my question is: Where are my Americans?”
On Wednesday, the most compelling answer to the disappearance of the two Americans emerged after a former member of former president Yahya Jammeh’s elite killing crew told the TRRC the duo was killed on the orders of the former president.
“We converged at our base in Kololi and it was Nuha Badjie who told us there is an assignment we needed to do,” Amadou A Jallow also known as Oya told the TRRC.
The jungler team who administered the killing of the two Americans was commanded by Major Nuha Badjie.
Jallow in his tell-all explained: “He (Nuha Badjie) told us there are two Gambian Americans who have come into the country to topple the government of Yahya Jammeh.
“He told us they were inside a hotel but Michael Correa is there keeping an eye on them. He told us when they are going out, he will call us and we will wait for them [on the road] and arrest them.
“We mounted a checkpoint near where Petroleum House is now built. We waited for them and when they came, we arrested them.
“When we arrested them, we asked them where they were lodged. We went with them to where they were lodged.
“We searched the whole place and what they had in their possession was their personal belongings and a [refrigerator] truck. When we searched the truck, we found bags of hay. We searched the bags but we saw nothing.
“We found money on them, dollars and dalasis. We gave the money to Nuha Badjie. We then took them to our base in Kololi. This happened between 2am and 3am.
“When we got to our base, it was the officers who were interrogating them and what the officers told us was the two men said their trip to the country was to topple the government of Yahya Jammeh.
“I didn’t get inside but I know they were beaten during the interrogation. After the interrogation, we called General Sulayman Badjie and told him we have arrested the two men. Sulayman Badjie said we should wait so he could talk to [President] Yahya Jammeh.
“We sat and waited. Yahya Jammeh was in Kanilai at the time. Around 5pm, General Sulayman Badjie called Major Nuha Badjie and told him Yahya Jammeh said he wanted to see them, that we should take them to him.
“We put them in a vehicle and took them to Kanilai. When we got to Kanilai it was our leaders; Major Nuha Badjie, Captain Momodou Jarju alias Rambo, Lieutenant Mustapha Sanneh and Lieutenant Malick Jatta are the people who took the two men to Yahya Jammeh’s house.
“When they came out with them, Nuha Badjie stood in front of us and said Yahya Jammeh has given an order that we should kill them and cut them into pieces.
“We put them in a vehicle and drove them to Yahya Jammeh’s garden. Solo Bojang took the lead to show us where to bury them. When we got to the place, we stopped and alighted the vehicles. There was a shed. I was one of the people who went to that shed to fetch spades and pickaxes.
“While [some of us] where digging a grave, the rest took plastic bags and put them over their heads. They were suffocated to death.
“[And] because Yahya Jammeh gave an order for them to be cut into pieces, Malick Manga and Nfansu Nyabally cut their heads [off their bodies]. After we completed the digging, we put them into the grave and buried them. We then left.”
Mamut Ceesay had two children and worked as an infrastructure systems analyst for Chevron and Texaco in Houston. His friend Ebou Jobe, a father of three, was an operations manager at Walmart.
