Gambia's secret torture chambers

“My hands were tied together, my head covered with a black plastic bag… they poured cold water on me and the four men from the State Guard started beating me… until I became unconscious”, says ex-Gambian parliamentarian.

By Sheriff Bojang Jnr.

The Gambia is one of West Africa’s major tourist destinations. Every winter season, thousands of tourists from mainly Britain, The Netherlands and Scandinavia visit the country to escape the freezing weather in Europe.

For the holiday makers it is a paradise, one of the most peaceful and relaxing countries on the African continent. But there is another side of The Gambia that is worlds apart from the one presented to the tourists and the one they fall in love with.

Enemies of the state

Less than 15km away from the Tourism Development Area, a vast area where most of the hotels are located, are the headquarters of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) and the Mile 2 Central Prison. These are The Gambia’s two most notorious and hostile detention centres where the authorities illegally detain and torture people they perceive as enemies of the state.

Demba Dem was a National Assembly member who won his parliamentary seat under the ticket of the President Yahya Jammeh’s ruling party. Unlike his peers on the ruling bench, Dem was renowned for challenging and voting against controversial pro-government bills. This had put him on a collision course with his peers and top government officials who confronted and threatened him on various occasions.

Demba Dem

In March 2006, the authorities used a foiled coup to finally get their perceived enemy. Dem was sitting in his office in parliament when he was paid an unusual visit.

“It was around 1am… they came and told me that I was wanted at the NIA headquarters. That’s how they took me in. When we arrived at the gate, they drove me to Mile 2 Central Prison”.

"The Green Boys"

After being detained at Mile 2 for three hours, Dem was taken back to the NIA where he appeared before a security panel of 35 members. “They told me that they were there to investigate me because according to them, I played a role in the foiled coup. They started asking me so many questions and I refused to talk. That was the time the head of the panel told me that by the time the ‘green boys’ were through with me, I would want to talk and then their doors would be closed”.

Torture marks on Gambian journalist Musa Saidykhan

The ‘green boys’ are masked armed men from the president’s most loyal guards, the State Guards. The doors actually closed in on Dem when they visited his cell at the NIA that night.

“My hands were tied, my head covered with a black plastic bag… they poured cold water on me and the four men from the State Guard started beating me. They beat me until I became unconscious. They lifted me up and took me out to face the panel again.” 

When Dem refused to talk to the panel for the second time, he was taken back to his cell where the State Guards visited him again. “The same beating continued until they realised that they would kill me but I wouldn’t talk. They took me to Mile 2 where they kept me for four months before charging me with treason and conspiracy to commit treason.”

"A crocodile’s pond"

Demba was acquitted and discharged by the Gambian Supreme Court a year later and he now lives in Europe with his family. But the thought of his prison cell still haunts him.

Demba was detained and tortured in the Gambia’s most notorious prison cell called ‘Bambadinka’ which literarily means ‘a crocodile’s pond’. It is an underground cell inside the NIA headquarters where President Jammeh’s political opponents, journalists and alleged coup plotters are tortured.

Dem describes Bambadinka as a "very dangerous cell, a tiny and filthy place where you sleep on the floor. You are provided with half a loaf of bread and less than a litre of water the whole day. It’s everyday darkness inside there and it’s full of mosquitoes".

Yahya Bajinka was an intelligence officer at the NIA. When his brother, a Major in the national army and President Jammeh’s close protection officer for five years, fled the country after being implicated in a foiled coup, Bajinka and eight members of his family were arrested by his colleagues at the NIA.

“They arrested us to know the whereabouts of my brother which we didn’t know. While at the NIA, we were subjected to all sorts of maltreatment. My brother was slapped right in front of me… slapped so hard that I could see blood coming out of his nose. They would open your mouth, put an AK-27 inside and threaten to blow your head off. They would put electric shocks on your body”.

While Bajinka was detained at a light detention cell, his family members were detained and tortured at Bambadinka. “Bambadinka is a hellish cell. It’s a very dirty cell… health-wise. It’s full of mosquitoes and it’s always dark you cannot even see your palm. It’s not meant for human beings.”

A recent report released by Amnesty International and Women Advocates Research and Documentation Centre (WARDC) accused the Gambian government of locking up prisoners in extra secured prison cells without trial. The rights groups have also disclosed that among other Africans, some Nigerians are in a similar situation in The Gambia.

The Gambian government has denied such charges.

Click here to listen to report on Gambia's secret torture chambers

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