Star Metro - Suspect charged in killing of AFP's Gambia correspondent

Sanna Manjang, who was arrested on Saturday in neighbouring Senegal, was charged with two counts of murder for shooting longtime AFP journalist Deyda Hydara as well as another individual.

Manjang served in The Gambia's notorious "Junglers" paramilitary unit, which ex-dictator Yahya Jammeh used to crush opposition to his eccentric and brutal rule.

Having been on the run since Jammeh was forced into exile in January 2017, Manjang was repatriated to The Gambia on Tuesday.

Documents presented at his arraignment said he had acted "with malice aforethought" in carrying out "the death of Deyda Hydara by shooting him with a gun".

His sudden arraignment unfolded with a heavy security presence in the court, which ordered that he remain in Banjul's Mile 2 Central Prison.

Hydara was gunned down in his car on the outskirts of the capital Banjul on December 16, 2004.

The father-of-four, who was in his 60s at the time of his murder, had worked for AFP since 1974, first as a translator and then as a journalist.

Co-founder of the independent newspaper The Point, he was often critical of the government, elite corruption and attacks on press freedom.

Manjang was additionally charged with the 2006 murder of businessman Ndongo Mboob "by shooting him with a gun", according to the court documents.

Reed Brody, an international war crimes prosecutor who works with Jammeh's victims, called Manjang's arrest "a pivotal advance for accountability".

- Jammeh at large -

"Former Junglers have repeatedly identified him as a central actor in some of the Jammeh regime's worst atrocities," Brody said, adding that Manjang's testimony could serve as a "nail in the coffin" for Jammeh, who is living in Equatorial Guinea.

The Gambia in October repeated its commitment to arrest and prosecute Jammeh should he return, after the ex-leader told his followers he planned to return to his home country.

It was only after Jammeh was forced out of the country that the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC) looking into crimes committed during his rule uncovered details of Hydara's murder.

The Gambian government in 2022 committed to implementing recommendations made by the TRCC, which found that 240 to 250 people were killed by the state during Jammeh's rule.

It also found evidence of widespread extrajudicial killings, torture, enforced disappearances, witch hunts and other human rights abuses.

The Junglers worked independently of the regular army, and the death squad has long been accused of extrajudicial killings and torture by the United Nations and rights groups.

Jammeh, who came to power after a 1994 coup, was forced to flee to Equatorial Guinea after losing a presidential election in December 2016 to opposition leader Adama Barrow.

The Gambia, a former British colony of two million people, is among the least developed countries in the world, according to the United Nations.

J.Hall--SMC