13 died after drinking concoction - mother of nine tells TRRC

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By AWA SECKA-JAWARA

Fatou Camara, also a native of Sintet, a mother of nine told the TRRC that 13 people died after drinking the concoction, blaming Yahya Jammeh for their abduction to Kanilai and all that they went through.

According to her, it was on a Monday when some paramilitary men and Green Boys came into her house where they had a naming ceremony and were interrupted by ‘witch hunters’ who parked two buses at Fula Kunda and chased them like animals.

The witness said she was found at her home where she was asked by a man and two soldiers to follow them.

She said when she further asked she was threatened by the soldiers that she would be beaten if she did not follow them to Kanilai.

“When I further asked, I was told that they were going to give us something which was never disclosed to us,” she said.

She said after they chased and caught them the security personnel kicked, beat and put them into the bus.

She narrated that upon reaching the bantaba (village square) they were coerced to board the bus where she saw her husband’s first wife, Bintanding Manjang who recognized her.

The witness said the Green Boys and Green Girls were present drumming, singing and dancing.

She further explained that they were kicked and beaten with batons by members of Police Intervention Unit (PIU) to forcefully board the bus.

She lamented severe brutalization by security personnel, claiming that the men wearing red clothes among there abductors were Malians.

Fatou said she was forced to claim that she was a witch and that Solo Bojang called Yahya Jammeh for her to speak to him, but refused to claim being a witch then he (Solo) slapped her until she fell down and forced to drink another concoction.

She told the Commission that she was taken for the second time, stripped naked, bathed with concoction and forced to drink it.

She said upon her return home she heard information that former President Yahya Jammeh sent the ‘witch hunters’ to come and capture ‘witches and wizards’.

The witness also said that Jammeh brought them a truck of groundnut to pill it and all of them that went to Kanilai had participated in the exercise.

She said they were told to fill two bags of salt in exchange for bag of rice but they never get the bag of rice after providing the salt as demanded.

She said upon her released, she was unable to walk and still in deteriorating health condition for which she is still undergoing treatment with pain all over her body.