A 23-year-old former beauty queen in The Gambia, Fatou “Toufah” Jallow, has said she was raped by ex-President Yahya Jammeh when he was in office.
Her testimony
is part of a Human Rights Watch and Trial International report that details
another alleged rape and sexual assault by Mr Jammeh.
The BBC tried
to contact Mr Jammeh, who now lives in exile in Equatorial Guinea, about the
allegations.
A spokesman
for his APRC party denied the accusations made against Mr Jammeh.
“We as a
party and The Gambian people are tired of the steady stream of unfounded
allegations that have been reported against our ex-president,” said Ousman
Rambo Jatta, in a written statement to the BBC.
“The
ex-president has no time to react to lies and smear campaigns. He is a very
respectable God fearing and pious leader who has nothing but respect for our
Gambian women,” the deputy APRC leader said.
Ms Jallow
told the BBC she wanted to meet Mr Jammeh, 54, in court so he could face justice.
“I’ve
really tried to hide the story and erase it and make sure it’s not part of me.
“Realistically,
I couldn’t, so I decided to speak now because it is time to tell the story and
to make sure that Yahya Jammeh hears what he has done.”
She said she
also wanted to testify before The Gambia’s Truth, Reconciliation and
Reparations Commission (TRRC), which has been set up by President Adama Barrow,
who won elections in December 2016.
The TTRC is
investigating human rights violations alleged to have been committed during Mr
Jammeh’s 22-year rule, including reports of extrajudicial killings, torture and
arbitrary detention.
He was forced
from office in January 2017 after regional powers sent in troops when he
refused to give up power.
Ms Jallow
said she was 18 when she met Mr Jammeh after winning a beauty pageant in 2014
in the capital, Banjul.
In the months
following her coronation, she said the former president acted as a father
figure when they met, offering her advice, gifts and money, and also organising
for running water to be installed in her family home.
Then at a dinner organised by an aide to the president, she says he asked her to marry him. She refused and rebuffed other enticements from the aide to agree to the offer. –BBC
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