Sanna Manjang faces a navy courtroom for deserting the nation’s military in 2017 after the top of Yahya Jammeh’s 20-year rule.
Printed On 21 Sep 2026
The previous head of the Gambian paramilitary unit often known as the “Junglers” has appeared in a navy courtroom to face costs of desertion.
Sanna Manjang is accused of deserting the armed forces when the lieutenant colonel fled the nation in 2017 after the top of the 20-year rule of President Yahya Jammeh.
The case within the capital, Banjul, marks one other official bid at accountability for killings which occurred when Jammeh was in energy, after a homicide case towards Manjang was dropped in July.
He’s going through trial for an absence of “a steady interval of 9 years with the intention of deserting”. Manjang was arrested in Senegal final November and was repatriated to The Gambia a month later.
The Junglers armed group, which operated independently from the Gambian military, has lengthy been accused by the United Nations of extrajudicial killings and torture.
Longtime chief Jammeh was pressured into exile after dropping energy in 2016 to Adama Barrow, then opposition chief and now president.
Following Jammeh’s departure, the nation established the Fact, Reconciliation and Reparations Fee (TRRC). It investigated alleged crimes below his rule and located that between 240 and 250 folks have been killed by the state. It additionally discovered proof of widespread extrajudicial killings, torture, kidnappings, witch hunts and different abuses.
A number of of Jammeh’s accomplices, together with Junglers, have been detained and sentenced overseas in Germany, Switzerland and america.
Homicide costs dropped
Manjang was beforehand charged with 4 counts of homicide, together with that of AFP journalist Deyda Hydara in 2004, however the costs have been dropped in July as The Gambia struggled to summon witnesses, some allegedly members of the loss of life squad.
Along with Hydara’s capturing, Manjang was accused of killing three different males, together with one he personally decapitated.
After the costs have been dropped, Manjang was charged individually for the assault of two different males in an ongoing trial.
