By Fatoumata Joof
The commission set up to dig into the extra-judicial killings and other human rights violations committed under the regime of exiled former President Yahya Jammeh, TRRC on Tuesday paid a courtesy call on the Centre for Victims of Human Rights Violations as part of the commission’s outreach activities.
The vice chairperson of the commission, Adelaide Sosseh who led the delegation explained the purpose of the visit which she said is centred on the memorandum of understanding signed between the commission and the Victims Centre. The vice chairperson expressed that the MoU will cement the relationship between the two institutions as far as their mandate is concerned with regards to reconciliation and reparations
“The TRRC will endeavor to work closely with the Victims Support Unit so that it can move in the right direction. For the fact that we cannot meet all the expectations but we will do our best humanly to reach out to many people who are victims,” she assured.
Baboucarr Njie, a board member of the centre gave a historical formation of the centre and explained: “This organisation was founded in April 2017 by a group of victims and Gambians who were also in the Diaspora. Since the centre was founded, it had registered 800 victims and we have been trying in different forms to see how we can bring the victims together and their representation to the national level and as well as the international level.”
Mr Njie also explained the source of funds for the centre which he said is by forms of voluntary activities and donations from both local and international donors such as German embassy, Article 19 and Swedish NGO among other donors.
Mr Njie further explained that the organisation is working hard to see how best they could do to support the victims, claiming that there is quite number of victims whose rights and freedoms were violated which resulted to loss of their livelihood.
“We provide medical and educational support to quite a number of victims through collaboration with Article 19 to Senegal for further medical evaluation and treatment. And we also had a psychologist who provided psycho-social support to quite a number of victims especially those who were seriously abused and traumatised,” Mr Njie noted.
Meanwhile immediately after the meeting, the centre handed over school support funds to some of the victims in a bid to enhance their education.
