The brother of a Ghanaian victim killed in The Gambia in 2005, Oduro Mensah Emmanuel Gerson, has complained about what he sees as a “lack of communication” concerning compensation, closure, and access to justice between victims, the government of Ghana, and the government of The Gambia since the Truth Commission’s report was submitted.

Mensah emphasized the difficulties faced by victims’ families during a public lecture on transitional justice focused on enforced disappearances, which was organized by the Ministry of Justice post-TRRC Unit, African Center for Legal Research and Training, African Network Against Extrajudicial Killings and Enforced Disappearances (ANEKED), and Women Association for Victims Empowerment (WAVE).

He was disappointed that there had been no news about the truth commission’s recommendations on exhumations, compensation, and the punishment of the criminals. Mensah claimed that despite efforts to communicate with the Ghanaian government via letters, there has been no answer, keeping the relatives of the victims in the dark.

As stated in the whitepaper, Mensah underlined the necessity of forming a joint committee to supervise compensation for victims who were from Ghana. In order to enable the families of the deceased to arrange for a respectable funeral, he also demanded that the commission’s advice to form a committee for the identification and exhumation of the dead victims be carried out.

“We are requesting that the government guarantee the payment of our compensation. Mensah declared, “We also need justice,” alluding to the commission’s suggestion that former President Yahya Jammeh be brought to court. Although Mensah noted that there had been some recent developments in the prosecution of those who carried out the killings, including a case in Germany, he emphasized the significance of holding Jammeh legally accountable.

After all of the horrors that Yahya Jammeh’s regime inflicted on The Gambia, the relatives of the victims still hold out hope for justice and a satisfactory resolution, underscoring the significance of continuous efforts to confront the legacy of the past.

Source: Standard Newspaper