By Mafugi Ceesay
Fatou Darboe, a native of Sintet village has told the TRRC that she has prayed for God’s punishment for President Jammeh for falsely accusing her of witch-craft and torturing her.
Explaining her ordeal at the hands of Jammeh’s witch doctors hunting for imagined witches in the Fonis in 2009, Fatou, 60, said she had gone to a neighbouring village when she heard that Jammeh had sent witch hunters to Sintet looking for witches.
“I rushed back to save my family but when I got to the entrance of the village, I was stopped by soldiers at a checkpoint. They asked me to board a vehicle which was full off middle-aged and older women. There were also two other vehicles filled with men and they came from the Jola, Fula and Mandinka ethnic groups. Those who refused to join the vehicles were mercilessly tortured,” she explained.
She narrated that the first man, Danjang Touray, to be given the concoction in Kanilai died, while another person, Sansang Camara suffered a running stomach and eventually died later in the year.
Fatou said she herself was forced to undress and bathed by boys young enough to be her children. She said they forced her to take a concoction which made her lose consciousness.
She said the witch doctors forced confession out of their victims and anyone who wanted to be free had to confess to eating a human being. “I had refused to do so for days but when I saw others who confessed got released, I followed suit,” Fatou said. She said she was falsely accused and would never forgive Jammeh for that.
