THE Gambian military has arrested former Brigadier General Bora Colley, who is alleged to have been a member of a notorious ‘death squad’ during the regime of former President Yahya Jammeh. Colley is accused of being part of the ‘Junglers,’ a paramilitary unit long implicated in extrajudicial killings and torture by the United Nations and various human rights organisations.
According to a statement released by the Gambia Armed Forces on Saturday, Colley was arrested around midnight on August 9, 2024, after voluntarily surrendering to the Military Police at Yundum Barracks, near the capital, Banjul. Intelligence services had been conducting surveillance around his residence in Banjul prior to his arrest.
The statement confirmed that Colley is currently detained and cooperating with the Military Police as they conduct their investigation into his alleged involvement in atrocities committed under Jammeh’s rule.
The Gambian government has taken steps to address the human rights violations that occurred during Jammeh’s 22-year rule. In 2022, the government endorsed the recommendations of a commission tasked with investigating these atrocities, agreeing to prosecute 70 individuals, including Jammeh himself, who came to power in a 1994 coup.
Jammeh’s presidency was marked by widespread allegations of human rights abuses. He lost the presidential election in December 2016 to opposition leader Adama Barrow and fled to Equatorial Guinea in January 2017 after conceding defeat. Barrow has been in power since then, and efforts to hold those responsible for past atrocities continue under his administration.
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