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The Gambia has confirmed on Tuesday that it received $2.5 million returned by the United States from the sale of former dictator Yahya Jammeh’s mansion, and said the money would go to victims of his rule.
Jammeh’s two decades in power from 1994 to 2017 were stained by rights abuses, and the eccentric ex-leader is accused of syphoning millions of dollars in state funds for his personal use.
The US Justice Department had announced in September that it would return the proceeds from the sale of a mansion owned by Jammeh to The Gambia.
It said the ex-ruler and his wife had bought the property in the posh Washington suburb of Potomac, Maryland, using “criminal proceeds and misappropriated Gambian public funds”.
The Gambia Reparations Commission, which was set up to compensate victims of abuses committed during Jammeh’s 22-year rule, said it was “pleased to inform victims, survivors and the public that it has received a total of $2,573,414.10 recovered from the forfeiture and sale” of the property.
The funds “shall only be utilized for the payment of reparations by the Commission”, it added in a statement, calling the return of the money “an important step” toward the compensation payments promised in a 2023 law.
“The Commission is committed to ensuring that the funds are managed responsibly, transparently and accountably, with due regard to the rights and needs of victims and survivors,” it said.
Jammeh now lives in Equatorial Guinea, after he was forced out under pressure from The Gambia’s west African neighbours following his 2016 election loss to current President Adama Barrow.
Jammeh is accused of presiding over the murder of political opponents, disappearances, rape and torture.
A commission of inquiry estimated between 240 and 250 victims were killed by his forces in the former British colony of two million people.
