African Legal Aid, AFLA, a pool of African lawyers based in The Hague who provide free legal aid to victims and litigants, is to convene a side-event at the 17th session of the assembly of state parties to the ICC to boost the ‘Bringing Yahya Jammeh to Justice in Ghana’ campaign.
According to a statement sourced from the group obtained by The Standard, AFLA is lending support to the powerful campaign that was launched in Accra, Ghana, last May.
“We’re supporting the call made in Ghana, to seek extradition of Yahya Jammeh from Equatorial Guinea to face the law in Ghana, because Ghana has a special stake in Jammeh’s accountability.
“In 2005, 54 West African migrants including 44 Ghanaians were allegedly massacred by Jammeh and his forces. So if justice cannot yet be delivered against Jammeh at home in the Gambia, it should be done close to home in Ghana, where the families of many of the Ghanaian victims reside,” the statement said. It added that AFLA’s side event at the ICC is entitled ‘Complementarity in Action: Bringing Yahya Jammeh to Justice in Ghana’.
A member of the group and judge Sophia Amankwa said she encouraged each ICC member state to support AFLA’s side event, by signing up, either as a non-paying co-sponsor, or as a paying co-sponsor. Martin Kyere, the lone survivor of the massacres will participate in the Side event to share his vivid account of what happened.
