The Gambia receives $2.57m from Yahya Jammeh mansion sale for victims

The Gambia’s Reparations Commission said on Tuesday, 20 October, that it had received $2,573,414.10 from the sale of former President Yahya Jammeh’s forfeited mansion in Maryland, United States, for reparations to victims of his rule. The receipt moves money recovered from the property into the compensation process, though the commission has not announced when individuals will be paid or how much they will receive.

The commission said it would manage the money responsibly and transparently, with regard to the rights and needs of victims and survivors, according to the BBC. Voice of Nigeria, in a report credited to Al Jazeera and Shakirat Sadiq, said the proceeds had been deposited directly into the Reparations Fund account at The Gambia’s Central Bank and were to be used only for reparations.

How the Maryland property became a reparations fund

Voice of Nigeria reported that the US Justice Department filed a civil forfeiture complaint in 2020, alleging that the property had been bought with proceeds of corruption. The department said it was purchased through a trust set up by Jammeh’s wife. Its forfeiture order came in 2022, years before the commission’s announcement that the proceeds had reached The Gambia.

Who the reparations are intended to help

Jammeh lost the 2016 presidential election to Adama Barrow, initially accepted defeat and then rejected the result. He stepped down in 2017 after pressure from other West African countries and went into exile in Equatorial Guinea. The reparations programme addresses abuses committed during his 22-year rule, according to the report credited to Al Jazeera.

A Gambian commission of inquiry found that abuses by the state or its agents had killed between 240 and 250 Gambians and non-Gambians, the BBC reported. Jammeh has also been accused of presiding over killings of political opponents, disappearances, rape and torture. He has previously denied allegations of wrongdoing, according to the BBC’s 2022 account.

Another national commission found that Jammeh had 281 properties in The Gambia, as well as properties in the US and Morocco, and controlled more than 100 bank accounts, the BBC reported. It concluded that he had misappropriated more than $300m. Those findings help explain why assets linked to his presidency have become part of the effort to fund compensation.

President Barrow said his government would heed any recommendations from official auditors on allocating the mansion-sale funds, according to the Voice of Nigeria report credited to Al Jazeera. The commission has not identified recipients or set out individual award amounts, leaving the distribution of the money as the next decision for the reparations process.