In 2017, after 23 years of a mercyless leadership by President Yaya Jammeh, gambian people have started to speak out about the terror they suffered from under the previous government and to ask for justice. The Gambia Center for Victims of Human Rights Violations have since then identified dozens of cases and shared them with the NGO Article 19.
Article 19 has informed CAPREC of these victims' difficulties and about the importance to provide them with a social, psychological and medical assistance with no delay. Following to this, CAPREC's team has been to the Gambia in November 2017 and met several victims in order to assess their needs.
Conclusions and the victims' conditions were alarming. CAPREC then requested an emergency fund to the UN, which has been released in January 2018.
Thanks to the support of the UN Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture (UNVFVT), CAPREC hosts from February to April 2018 about fifty victims of Human Rights' violations, aged 29-71. These are of two orders: the first group, of 25 people, are primary victims. They have directly suffered from torture during their arrest and their detention, and show heavy medical and psychological consequences.
The second group, of about 25 people, is made of secundary victims (relatives of primary victims): women mainly, who have suffered from the anxiety related to the lack of news of their husband's, brother's or father's condition, and the stress of their potential death. They will benefit from therapy and psychological assistance.