Why families of victims of 2005 Gambian killings to wait longer for compensations

44 Ghanaians killed in The Gambia in 2005

The Gambia calls for help in bringing closure to investigations on 2005 killings

Families of the victims of the 2005 migrant killings of some 44 Ghanaians in The Gambia may have to wait a lot longer to be compensated because authorities say it is getting harder for them to properly identify the Ghanaian victims.

This, the Gambian Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC), said is dragging the process a little, reports asaaseradio.com.

“It is quite tricky because even with the 44 Ghanaians, they have not been properly identified.

“It is only a few of them that have been identified as of now. We do not know their families yet so it is only a number of them that we know their families by virtue of one of them that escaped on that day and he came to the TRRC and testified, that is Martin Kyere and Eric Yaw as well. They were able to identify some individuals but some, we are unable to say this is the person that was executed in The Gambia,” Mariama Singhateh, counsel to the TRRC said.

She added that in the meantime, an advice to the Gambian government and the Attorney General of Gambia for further investigations into the case has been made since it is a complex investigation.

“When the incident first occurred, there was a joint investigation into this issue but they didn’t go far. Given that there are different nationalities involved, we need help with the identification of those nationalities, and also given that we were not able to identify the location where these individuals were buried because most of the junglers that testified could not lead us to that location,” she said.

Mariama Singhateh asked for collaboration and help to be able to bring a closure to this matter.

“We do not have the expertise to actually investigate further with respect to finding out where they were indeed buried. That is why we need additional help,” she added.

On July 23, 2005, 44 Ghanaians were either killed or went missing in The Gambia.

These were not Ghanaians resident in The Gambia but were in transit together with other West Africans mainly from Nigeria and Senegal to Europe by sea.