Martin Kyere, survivor of the 2005 massacre of West African migrants testifies before Gambia’s TRRC

Martin Kyere, survivor of the 2005 massacre of West African migrants testifies before Gambia’s TRRC

Martin Kyere, a survivor of the captured would be migrants to Europe by state security agents of former Gambain president Yaya Jammeh has Monday appeared before the Truth commission investigating human rights violations under the 22 years of exiled Gambian leader.

Over fifty West African migrants including 44 Ghanaians were slaughtered and dumped in the bushes near Brufut and various places. The migrants who boarded a boat from the Senegalese seaside city of Sally, Mbour to come to the Gambia en-route to a ship that is supposed to take them to Europe through a Gambian contact Lamin Tunkara was also killed by the security agents.

Martin recalled arriving in Barra and Banjul ports where some of the members of their group were asked to go into the town to get sim cards so that they can call their handler. As they await the return of their colleagues, they heard shots fired when they realised something was amiss. After about a week in detention, Kyere recalls being picked up with four others and taken to an incomplete story building. Further testifying, the Ghanaian revealed that as they were tied up together and bundled into a pickup and drove away, one of them who was saying prayers had his backbone cut by their captives and a dead sheep was also place between him and another and told that they will be joining the sheep in journey.

Realising that the security operatives were definitely going to kill them, Martin tried to free his hands from the cable he was tied with and successfully got loose. He informed the others that his has taken off the cable to escape. After a brief conversation, the vehicle started moving and he took his moment and jumped out of the pickup and ran for his life. About five steps later, he heard gunshot in his direction but laid low on the ground in the forest as they are being driven to be executed.

Following his escape from the vehicle, he was to spend four days in the forest for fear of being caught. After four days in the forest he found himself on a road that appeared to be at a border, eventually finding a farming village near Bungkiling in Casamance whose inhabitants gave him food and clothes after narrating his storey to them.

The tragic events of July 2005 killings of innocent young boys and girls by agents of paranoid Yahya Jammeh who believed these migrants were mercenaries sent to overthrow his government has revealed terrible flaws in the security apparatus of the country which calls for total and complete overhaul of the country’s security sector. NEVER AGAIN