Michael Correa

Michael Correa, an alleged member of former Gambian dictator Yahya Jammeh’s notorious “Junglers” death squad, is scheduled to stand trial in Denver, Colorado, starting September 16, 2024. Correa faces charges of torture and conspiracy to commit torture. The historic trial is a major step towards truth and justice for Gambian victims and the first ever trial in the United States based on the principle of universal jurisdiction.

Two years ago, The Gambia created a key tool for transitional justice: the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC). The eleven commissioners of the TRRC are tasked with shedding light on the many abuses that took place under Yahya Jammeh‘s regime between 1994 and 2017. The TRRC hearings, which began in 2019, are being attended by many Gambians. They have so far shed light on dark areas of the past through testimony of victims, witnesses and insiders of the former regime. The mandate of the Commission has recently been extended until the spring of 2021.

On 3 December 2020, former member of the elite Gambian paramilitary unit Michael Correa appeared before a US District Court in Colorado, as part of a preliminary hearing. He has been accused of acts of torture committed in The Gambia on behalf of the administration of former President Yahya Jammeh. However, due to the complexity of the case, its international focus and the pandemic, the case will probably not move forward for some time.

For more than 20 years, Yahya Jammeh and his elite paramilitary unit, the Junglers, ruled the small West African nation of The Gambia with an iron fist. Extrajudicial executions, acts of torture, and enforced disappearances, the Gambian people endured decades of abuse. Today, victims are demanding justice. Will it be rendered?

The indictment in the United States on 11 June 2020 of an alleged former Gambian “death squad” member on torture charges is an important step for Gambian victims and international justice, a coalition of human rights groups said on 12 June 2020, who have acknowledged the news as a major advance for victims of abuses during Yahya Jammeh rule.