By Yankuba Jallow with New Narratives For decades faith in The Gambia was weaponised — not as a source of healing, but as a tool of political control. Under Yahya Jammeh’s authoritarian rule, mosques and churches became less places of worship and more instruments of state propaganda. Jammeh compelled Gambians to follow his religious directives…
Yankuba Jallow
US Shifts From Aid to Investment in Africa
By Yankuba Jallow with New Narratives In a significant shift in U.S. foreign policy towards Sub-Saharan Africa, Ambassador Troy Fitrell, Senior Bureau Official for the Bureau of African Affairs at the U.S. State Department announced a dramatic shift in US foreign policy in Africa last month, which he said was aimed at transitioning the U.S.-Africa…
Gambia Orders Inquest into Death of Ex-Jungler Brigadier General Bora Colley
By Yankuba Jallow with New Narratives The Gambian government has ordered a coroner’s inquest into the death of Brigadier General Bora Colley, a former military officer accused of grave human rights violations under ex-president Yahya Jammeh’s regime. Colley, who had been in custody since August 2024 after voluntarily returning from exile, died on March 9, 2025,…
Undoing Jammeh’s Legal Legacy: Gambia’s Dormant Reform Engine
By Yankuba Jallow with New Narratives When Yahya Jammeh’s authoritarian regime crumbled in 2017, a wave of hope swept across The Gambia. The new government, under President Adama Barrow, pledged to right the wrongs of a 22-year dictatorship that had silenced dissent, trampled rights, and governed through fear. At the heart of this reform agenda…
International Expert Says Hope Not Lost for Justice After US Funding Cuts As Victims Demand Speed
By Yankuba Jallow with New Narratives The long-awaited arrest warrant for Sanna Manjang, accused of extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, torture, and other human rights violations during Yahya Jammeh’s 22-year rule, has been met with a mix of relief and frustration among victims. The country’s 2018 Truth, Reconciliation, and Reparations Commission accused Jammeh and dozens of his lieutenants…
Gambia’s Victims Push for Reparations Amid Delays
By Yankuba Jallow with New Narratives Victims of human rights violations in The Gambia are growing increasingly frustrated over delays in processing reparations, which they say are long overdue. While the government has taken steps toward justice, including the establishment of a Special Criminal Division to prosecute crimes from the Yahya Jammeh era, victims say…
A 15-Year Wait: The Unfulfilled Promise of Kerr Mot Ali’s Exiled Residents
By Yankuba Jallow Fifteen years ago, in 2009, the village of Kerr Mot Ali in The Gambia was a peaceful, thriving community, home to many families and followers of Sering Ndigal, a religious group known for its teachings of peace and spiritual healing. But that peace was shattered when the Gambian government launched a violent…
Trump Aid Cuts Bad News for The Gambia’s Hybrid Court
By Yankuba Jallow, Justice correspondent In one of its first moves the Trump administration has frozen all government assistance programs across the world for 90 days. Though much remains unclear, the new administration has indicated most of those programs – funded by USAID and the State Department – will be shuttered. The Gambia is not…
Liberian Warlord Pleads Guilty in US in Move that Experts Say Could Foreshadow the Trial of Gambian Defendant Michael Correa
By Yankuba Jallow The US trial of an accused Liberian warlord Laye Sekou Camara, alias “K-1” or “Dragon Master” has ended in a guilty plea. Camara, facing forty years in prison for lying about his war activities on US immigration forms, pleaded guilty days before his trial was set to go ahead. In a move…