Hundreds accused of witchcraft and poisoned in government campaign

Amnesty International today revealed that up to 1,000 people in Gambia have been kidnapped from their villages by 'witch doctors', taken to secret detention centres and forced to drink hallucinogenic concoctions.

Some have developed kidney problems and two have died after these attacks.

Reports suggest that officials within Gambia including the police, army and the President's personal protection guards are accompanying 'witch doctors' as they carry out their campaign.

Victims and their relatives told Amnesty International that 'witch doctors' have visited villages with armed security and forcibly taken people they accused of being 'witches' to secret detention centres. Many of those taken were elderly.

At the secret detention centres, where some have been held for up to five days, they are forced to drink unknown substances that cause them to hallucinate and behave erratically. Many are then forced to confess to being a witch. In some cases, they are also severely beaten, almost to the point of death.

Amnesty International UK Director Kate Allen said:

'These horrific attacks and kidnappings are part of a witch-hunting campaign that's spreading terror throughout the country. Already hundreds of Gambians have fled to neighbouring Senegal for safety after their villages were attacked.'

Eyewitnesses and victims told Amnesty International that the 'witch doctors', who they say are from neighbouring Guinea, are accompanied by police, army and national intelligence agents. They are also accompanied by "green boys" - Gambian President Yahya Jammeh's personal protection guards.

The most recent incident took place on 9 March in Sintet village in the Foni Jarrol district, where up to 300 people were forced to go to the President's farm in Kanilai.

According to one eyewitness:

'At 5:00 am the paramilitary police armed with guns and shovels surrounded our village and threatened the villagers that anyone who tries to escape will be buried six feet under...Fear gripped the village...children were crying and traumatised. They randomly identified over 300 men and women who were forced at gunpoint into waiting buses and ferried to the President's hometown.

Once there, they were stripped and forced to drink dirty water from herbs and were also bathed with these dirty herbs. A lot of these people who were forced to drink these poisonous herbs developed instant diarrhoea and vomiting whilst they lay helpless. I stayed there for five days. I experienced and witnessed such abuse and humiliation. I cannot believe that this type of treatment is taking place in Gambia. It is from the dark ages.'

The incidents have taken place in the Foni Kansala district, an area near to President Jammeh's farm of Kanilai. However, many people are telling Amnesty International that the 'witch hunting' campaign will spread throughout the rest of the country.

Witch doctors were invited to Gambia early in 2009, soon after the death of President Jammeh's aunt. The President reportedly believes that witchcraft was used in her death.

Kate Allen continued:

'The Gambian government has to put a stop to this campaign, investigate these attacks immediately and bring those responsible to justice.'

On 8 March, Halifa Sallah, a prominent opposition figure who has written for the main opposition newspaper, Foroyya, about the activities of the witch doctors, was arrested at his home. He has since been charged with sedition and spying, and is currently in Mile II, the Central Prison in the Gambia. His next court date is set for Wednesday 25 March. Amnesty International is concerned that he is at risk of being tortured or ill-treated and that his trial will be unfair.

In response to Imam Fatty

This Monday, while reading the Senegambia Newspaper, I came across their lead story in which the imam of State House, Abdoulie Fatty was quoted as describing the on going state sponsored witch hunting exercise in the Gambia as nothing but wild rumours aimed at discrediting the government of Yahya Jammeh.


In as much as I respect Imam Fatty's right as a Gambian to express himself, I think he should as a man of God have the fear of God in his heart and must always speak the truth and nothing but the truth in his sermons.


Imam Fatty should be burying his head in shame for he have lied to his congregation and Allah when he choose to defend Yayha Jammeh instead of condemning the criminal activities of his witch hunters, which is tearing many Gambian families apart.


And it makes me wonder where the hell the Gambian is heading to when I see respected religious scholars such as Imam Fatty choosing to tell lies instead of the truth in their blind support of Yahya Jammeh.


Every Gambian know that the stories of witch hunters arresting elderly men and women in the privacy of their homes and detaining them in Kanilai and other secret detention centres across the country are 100 per cent true. The Gambian people also know that the arrested men and women are forced to drink a mysterious concoction by the witch hunters. The Gambian people are aware that some elderly people were tortured by the witch hunters and at least five people have died as a result.


So, if Imam Fatty thinks he can fool the Gambian people by lying on the pulpit in order to save the battered and bruised image of his adopted son-Yahya Jammeh- then let him think again.


What is happening in the Gambia is unacceptable in any civilised country-more so a religious country like ours that is totally against homosexuality and skin bleaching. Imam Fatty may choose not to speak the truth, but the Gambians whose families are being torned apart by Jammeh's thugs will always speak out.


Imam Fatty should know that no matter how hard he tries, he cannot hide the true picture of Jammeh's savagery and thuggery from the Gambian people. The more he tries, the more laughable his efforts will be to the Gambian public.


Imam Fatty has made himself look so stupid in the eyes of the Gambian public and his attempts to distort the truth, can be compared to that of a person trying to hide from the sun with his hands.


Imam Fatty have always been a stooge of Yahya Jammeh. And I think becoming Jammeh's right hand man has corrupted his mind and blinded his eyes. His long association with Jammeh may have made him fall into temptation thereby ignoring all the brutalities being meted out to Gambians by President Jammeh and his regime.


In recognising the dangers of religious scholars associating with kings and rulers, Prophet Muhammad (SAW) is reported to have said: "Whosoever lives in the jungle becomes hard hearted; one who is fond of hunting becomes neglectful (of everything else) and one who visits kings frequently falls into temptation."


Imam Fatty needs to take a serious look at himself. He is allowing himself to be used by Jammeh in his dirty political game thereby compromising his responsibilities as a man of God. His blind support of Yahya Jammeh is preventing him from heeding to Prophet Muhammad's (SAW) warning that ".....You people must preach the truth and prevent the sinners from doing forbidden things and check the tyrants to bring them to the right path, otherwise you will be accursed and your hearts will be corrupted just as Allah did with Bani Israel."


In his book Faza'il Sadaqat, Shaikhul Hadith Hadhrat Maulana Muhammad Zakariya Kandhlawi, said: " Religious scholars who are concerned about the life after death keeps away from the company of princes, lords and rulers, and do not associate with them unless it becomes unavoidable. For their companionship may involve seeking their pleasure and winning their goodwill. Besides, rulers often indulge in cruelty, injustice and other sinful deeds and it is incumbent upon religious scholars to forbid them from doing evil, expose their injustice or cruelty and admonish them against transgressing the commandments of Allah. Observing reticence in such matters (instead of voicing one's disapproval) amounts to compromising one's religion. Furthermore, if one is obliged to praise the rulers with a view of gaining their favours, amounts to telling lies. Our worldly minded religious scholars are worst than the Devines of Banu Israel for they go to the rulers and tell them how to evade the law (shariah) and thereby seek to win their favours. If the scholars were to tell the rulers about their responsibilities in plain words, they would never like them (scholars) to visit their palaces frequently, but their truthfulness will be a means of eternal salvation in the of Allah."


Imam Fatty needs to know that the Gambian people are fed up with Yahya Jammeh and his calls for them to rally behind a man who is responsible for their sufferings is nothing but an insult. While he may be driving a flashy car and enjoying all the privileges as State House Imam, Imam Fatty needs to open his eyes and look at the poor conditions of the Gambian people 53 per cent of whom are being born in poverty, growing up in poverty and dying in abject poverty.


Gambians know that the APRC leadership is a complete sham. It is a bunch of corrupt and selfish individuals who are using their positions to enrich themselves.

Imam Fatty, Jammeh has everything to do with the witch hunters. If indeed he has nothing to do with them, then why the hell is he using Kanilai as a concentration camp to detain suspected witches and wizards arrested from Sintet and other neibouring villages? Why is Jammeh having Halifa Sallah detained at the Mile Two Prisons for speaking to the people of Makumbaya whose lives were rudely turned upside down by the witch hunters? Why are Gambian security officers being used by the witch hunters to intimidate and arrest our poor elderly parents?

Imam Fatty, the Gambia under Jammeh is not developing but retrogressing. And if things can be that bad for the country when Jammeh is doing his best as you have said, then God help us when Jammeh start doing bad.

President Jammeh may be a great guy to Imam Fatty, but to me and many Gambians, he is nothing but an evil monster who is ruining the hopes and aspiration of the Gambian people.