Marc Chenault
17 April 2016•Update: 28 April 2016
By Sambou Manneh
BANJUL, Gambia
Protesting the recent detention of party members, one of whom reportedly died, the main opposition party leader in Gambia and other top party officials were arrested Saturday by security forces.
United Democratic Party (UDP) leader Ousainou Darboe, a human rights lawyer, was intercepted by a crowd of riot police and soldiers as he led a peaceful demonstration along Kairaba Ave., Gambia’s economic district, demanding the release of UBP members arrested last Thursday, including National Organizing Secretary Solo Sandeng, who reportedly died in custody.
Security officers reacted to tension following moves to arrest the UDP leaders by firing teargas at the crowd.
A few youths were seen pelting stones at the police and some onlookers expressed worry as Darboe and others were taken away.
This incident happened some 200 meters from Darboe’s Pipeline residence, where the demonstrations began.
The demonstrators, chanting, “We want Solo Sandeng back, dead or alive,” were venting their anger at the government decision to arrest their party youth leader, who had led a similar protest on electoral reform Thursday.
On Thursday Sandeng and a dozen other demonstrators had gone to Westfield, in the urban center of Serrekunda, with banners saying, “We need proper electoral reform”.
They were later arrested by paramilitary officers who, according to Darboe, took them to National Intelligence Agency headquarters where Solo is reported to have died.
Human rights group Amnesty International and Darboe confirmed Sandeng’s death in state custody, though the circumstances of his death, Amnesty said, are unclear.
“They protested against things that they are unhappy about; among those things is changing electoral laws in Gambia,” Darboe told journalists at his residence before leading the protest. “They didn’t have guns, they didn’t have anything; empty-handed… Solo had been unconscious since Thursday and I was reliably informed last night that he died.”
“I’ve been also informed that Fatoumatta Jawara and Nogo Njie are between life and death… All we ask is the corpse of Solo and freedom for Fatoumatta Jawara and Nogo Njie and those arrested alongside them.”
Amnesty International has asked the government for an “immediate, thorough and independent” investigation of the circumstances surrounding Sandeng’s death.
President Yahya Jammeh was in Turkey earlier in the week to attend the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) summit but it is unclear if he has returned.
The government has not released an official statement on the issue but the information minister, Sheriff Bojang, told a local newspaper Friday that there is “no cause for alarm” after the Thursday demonstration.
“A few agitators wanted to cause a breach of the peace and public order but they were reined in by the able security forces… There is no need for alarm,” said Bojang.
A brief statement was also read on state television Friday calling on other states not to interfere in Gambia’s domestic affairs, though there was no mention of the demonstration.
Gambians will head to polls December this year and opposition leaders said that integrity of the polls will be questioned if elections are held under the current situation, without reforms to the country’s electoral law.
